Over 2,000 stranded Indians appeal to be sent home soon

• Call on Indian Govt. to repatriate early
• Surprised why Sri Lanka being closest neighbour not included in India’s repatriation mission
• Some face financial difficulties, emotionally drained close to 3-month lockdown in Colombo
• Claims Indian High Commission has failed to give definitive date of return

By Charumini de Silva 

Over 2,000 Indian nationals, stranded in Colombo for over two months due to the COVID-19 lockdown, are appealing to their Government to take them home soon.

The 2,000 Indian nationals include around 800 tourists and migrant workers. 

The Daily FT learns that some of these Indians have run into financial difficulties and some emotionally drained with the Indian High Commission in Colombo unable to give them a date of return.

“Our Government started to repatriate Indian nationals in early May starting from Gulf countries, the Maldives and Bangladesh, but they have overlooked the people in Sri Lanka which is the closest,” some of the stranded Indians in Sri Lanka told the Daily FT.

They also lamented that the Indian Government has now embarked on the second phase of repatriating their nationals and Sri Lanka was still not part of it.

“India has gone to countries such as Armenia in the Eastern Europe to repatriate citizens where there is no Embassy or High Commission. They have completely neglected the requests of over 2,000 Indians stranded in Colombo for close to three months,” they claimed.

Despite visiting and writing to the Indian High Commission in Colombo on a number of occasions via emails and social media like Twitter, they charged that the officials of the High Commission have continued to give a standard answer to their request.

“When we inquired from the Sri Lanka’s High Commission in India on our request, we found that the High Commission in Colombo was not pushing our request. Whenever we inquire from the High Commission, the answer is always that the Government is working towards the request,” they claimed.

They said their only concern now is to return back to their homes as soon as possible.

“We don’t understand what politics is happening to the request we make. All we want now is to go back to India as most of us are running out of money and are emotionally drained,” they added.

The Sri Lankan Government allows special ferry flights from any country to land here and fly out their citizens stranded in the country on a holiday or for work purposes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.