Kuwait repatriates two batches of Sri Lankans without costs

COLOMBO (News1st) : Kuwait has repatriated two batches of Sri Lankan workers at their own cost under its amnesty programme for illegal expatriates. One batch of 179 workers had returned to Sri Lanka on Wednesday while the other containing 287 people had returned on Tuesday. They had been flown back on two Kuwait Airways flights free of charge, Subashana Subawickrama, who belongs to an expatriate workers' rights group said. Both groups of workers had undergone special medical checks at the airport before being sent to quarantine centres as part of efforts to combat COVID-19. The Kuwaiti government has granted an amnesty for undocumented expatriates to return to their countries without any fines or travel cost. More than 19,000 undocumented Sri Lanka expatriates have registered for the amnesty programme, the foreign ministry said.