Bagdad Embassy ready to receive distress calls:
No immediate need to evacuate Lankans from Iraq
by Manjula Fernando
Around 1,000 Sri Lankans in Iraq are not in immediate danger and the
Embassy in Bagdad was still functioning to receive any distress calls, a
spokesman for the Foreign Ministry confirmed.
“Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Sumith Nakandala, an Attache H.S. Premasiri
and the Ambassador’s Personal Assistant M. Maharoon are still at the
Embassy in Bagdad’s high security zone, Director Public Communications
Division of the External Affairs Ministry A.M.J. Sadiq said.
He said most Sri Lankans are in the Northern Kurdistan region which
is free from the current violence and still under government control. In
Sulaymanyah in Kurdistan there were 107 Sri Lankans working in Faruk
Medical City, 47 at the Grand Millenium Hotel and another 44 domestic
aides in different households, he said.
Ambassador Nakandala visited this region from June 11 - 18 including
the Capital Erbil where he met the region’s Foreign Minister, the Labour
Minister and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce.
The largest concentration of Sri Lankans in Iraq are in Erbil with
400 working at the international airport and 200 Lankans in various
construction projects. In Dukan, in the same region, there are 19 Sri
Lankans working in a resort hotel.
“In all of Iraq, the northern Kurdistan, area has almost a separate
government. It is free of the current violence,” Sadiq said.
He said there were a few Sri Lankans in conflict-gripped Bagdad and
Basra regions.
These Sri Lankans are working for non Iraqi contractors and companies
within the secure green zone and if there is an emergency situation
there are plans to evacuate them by their employers. “They are not in
harm’s way right now”
Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry issued a travel advisory a week
ago for Sri Lankans to exercise extreme caution if they plan to visit
Iraq. It advised travellers to get in touch with the Sri Lankan Embassy
in Bagdad prior to the planned visit.
The emergency numbers of the Sri Lankan mission are, Ambassador
Nakandala - 009647704847685, Attache Premasiri – 009647704847458 and the
PA Maharoon – 009647703902467. |