Lanka workers safe in Egypt

Rasika SOMARATHNA

The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) will temporarily suspend sending migrant workers to Egypt due to the tense situation in the country.

Meanwhile a group of Sri Lankans working in the Ismailia industrial city in Egypt yesterday said that work at most of the factories in the industrial zone was at a standstill.

Speaking over the phone they said that they had been staying indoors during the past week as clashes between the Police and protesters in the city had prevented them from going outside. Internet and phone services too have been severely disrupted during the past few days, they added.

However, they noted that adequate security and other necessities were being provided to them by the management of the respective factories.

According to them Sri Lankans working in Egypt are not in danger as the recent violence there has been over an internal political matter.

Meanwhile international news agencies reported that protests demanding the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has intensified.

They said that the protests which began in Cairo had spread to other cities as well.

In several areas clashes have erupted between the Police and the Protesters resulting in several deaths and large scale damage to property.

The Egyptian Government has imposed curfew in several cities to quell the violence, news reports said.