Over 100 Lankans in Kuwait jails

Lakshmi DE SILVA

There are more than 100 Sri Lankans in Kuwait prisons serving five to 10 years jail terms for drug trafficking, prostitution and various other offences, Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka told the Daily News yesterday.

Two are serving jail terms for the third or fourth time in Kuwait. The two are from Embilipitiya and Matara. Their fingerprints were taken after the first offence and their passports cancelled but they had entered Kuwait again and had been engaged in the same offence and were serving jail terms, he said.

"There were also some innocent people who had fallen to this plight by carrying parcels or tablets given by some persons in Sri Lanka to be handed over to some other party in Kuwait without knowing that they were carrying drugs.Such people too were serving jail terms," Ranawaka said.