Migrant Sri Lankan Community based in the United Arab Emirates (MSLC – UAE) has written to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with a request to provide a concession with regard to their return to Sri Lanka.
MSLC has also expressed gratitude for the decision to allow the return of migrant workers to Sri Lanka during the subsistence of the pandemic. “Plenty of businesses here in the UAE have reduced the pays since Covid-19 affected the country, while some are even deprived of their salaries because they’ve been granted extended leave with no pay. Even if we’re allowed to come back, we wouldn’t have money in hand to spend for the air ticket”, reads the letter from MSLC.
However, according to the MSLC – UAE, George Steuarts, a private company has come forward to bear the costs of air travel for some workers, although the MSLC is not confident that George Steuarts will be able to bear the cost of air travel of all the returnees. They have requested the president to involve in choosing the most deserving workers for the free of charge air ticket provided by George Steuarts, and they propose that the air ticket cost of the rest of the returnees could be deducted from the SLBFE insurance policy of each returnee.
