Four more Lankans to be evacuated from Libya

Suraj A Bandara

All Sri Lankans working in Libya who desired to return to the country to escape the violence have returned barring four persons, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Bureau for Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said.

Another 142 Sri Lankan migrant workers returned home via Malta yesterday.

Around 572 Sri Lankan employees who worked in Libya returned home.

"The other four Lankans will be repatriated soon," he said.

"The cost for the safe evacuation of the Sri Lankan workers were borne by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment and employers of their respective companies. The International Organization for Migrant Workers (IOM) also evacuated 17 Lankans yesterday," he said.

Responding to a media report that over 1,200 Sri Lankan workers employed in Libya were stranded he said, statistics of the SLBFE reports revealed that only 576 workers consented to be evacuated from Libya.

"If the other Sri Lankan workers wish to be evacuated the Government is ready to evacuate them too, he said."

The Sri Lankan Government decided to evacuate all Sri Lankan migrant workers from Libya owing to the tense situation in the country over the past three weeks ago.