TO HELP SRI LANKA TO BRING HOME THE COUNTRY’S STRANDED CITIZENS IN LEBANON
(By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles)
India has agreed to help Sri Lanka evacuate the country’s stranded citizens from Lebanon ravaged by Israrael’s relentless bombing.
Indian ships will be docking at the Beirut harbor to evacuate more than thousand Indians who have expressed their desire to leave.
The ships used to evacuate the Indians will also be used to take Sri Lankans home, a statement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs said.
"As a friendly gesture to our neighbouring country, India is assisting in the evacuation of Sri Lankan nationals also," said India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed in a statement.
The Indian ships will start the evacuation by taking the first thousand Indians from Beirut harbor to the Larcana harbour in Cypress. From there the refugees will be flown home by air craft.
It is not known exactly when the ships will be taking the Sri Lankan nationals. But Sri Lankan refugees in Beirut guessed it could start on Friday.
India’s state minister for external affairs said that permission had been sought from Lebanon to berth the ships in Beirut
Mr. Ahamed also said that India was in touch with the Governments of Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Turkey to coordinate efforts to bring out the stranded people.
There about 12,000 unskilled Indian workers and 80,000 Sri Lankan unskilled workers in Lebanon. It is not known exactly how many Sri Lankans could reach Beirut because of the transportation problems in the country to take the Indian ships to Cyprus. Many roads and bridges in the country have been bombed out by Israeli jets.
