The ongoing process to repatriate stranded Sri Lankans from the Middle East, due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not been temporarily halted, but renewed due to certain dates of flights being postponed, Foreign Ministry Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colombage said yesterday (27).
He said that a flight from Israel, scheduled for August (31) has been rescheduled to September (3), but flights coming from the Middle East or any other destinations will not be halted.
“From August end, there will be flights from Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the postponed flight from Israel will be arriving on September (3).
Two SriLankan Airlines charter flights carrying more than 100 stranded Lankans from the Maldives and Australia arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake.
The UL-102 carrying around 20 Sri Lankans from Malé, Maldives landed at about 11.00 am and another UL flight 609 with than 150 Sri Lankans from Perth, Australia touched down at 2.00 pm.
The passengers were subjected to PCR tests and sent to quarantine centres later.