In response to distress calls concerning their medical conditions, Sri Lanka coordinated a humanitarian mission through Galle to evacuate 40 Iranian seafarers from stranded merchant vessels located approximately 24 nautical miles offshore, the foreign ministry confirmed today.
The operation was arranged and facilitated by the Iranian Embassy in Colombo, it said.
Following medical treatment ashore, all 40 crew members departed for Iran yesterday, according to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
At least 40 Iranian sailors aboard US-sanctioned oil tankers anchored just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters sought urgent medical treatment on the island, officials said on Sunday.
The merchant sailors were brought ashore through the Port of Galle, 115 kilometres south of the capital, Colombo, over the weekend, officials said.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that it had coordinated the ship-to-shore transfer of Iranian sailors in need of urgent medical care.
“We have coordinated the transfer and carried out our humanitarian obligations,” ministry spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo told AFP. “The costs were borne by the Iranian Embassy.”
Nearly a dozen empty Iranian tankers were anchored near Galle Harbour.
A US submarine sank the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in nearby international waters in March, killing 104 sailors.
Sri Lanka’s Navy rescued 32 Iranian sailors from the frigate, while a second Iranian naval vessel sought safe harbour in Trincomalee, in the northeast of the island.
Iranian tankers and other merchant vessels have been left stranded, unable to return to their home ports because of a US blockade.
Sri Lanka maintains that the tankers are in international waters, where they enjoy freedom of navigation.
The Sri Lankan military has deployed reconnaissance aircraft and patrol boats to monitor the vessels located outside the country’s 12-nautical-mile territorial waters, according to defence officials.
Many Iranian merchant vessels have moved east towards the Strait of Malacca and Singapore because of US sanctions, while a few remain near Sri Lankan waters, authorities said.
