510 expat Lankan workers return from Libya

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Five-hundred-and-ten Sri Lankan expatriate workers in Libya returned to the country by yesterday and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Tripoli has been directed to make arrangements to send the other workers during the next few days, said a spokeman for the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFU).

A senior official at the Tripoli Embassy said that not a single Sri Lankan worker had been injured following the turmoil which erupted on February 15.

SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka told the Sunday Observer that the Foreign Ministry had called upon the Tripoli Embassy to take measures to airlift the remaining Sri Lankan workers who seek refuge at the Embassy.

Charter planes could be used for the purpose following a directive by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ranawaka said that after the repatriation process, the Bureau will instruct local recruiting agents to re-employ these workers with new employment contracts in their subsidiary companies.