A group of Sri Lankan students stranded in India due to the COVID-19 outbreak has been repatriated, says SriLankan Airlines.

A special flight (UL 1146) carrying 101 Sri Lankan students touched down at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at around 2.26 pm today (23).

The flight, chartered by SriLankan Airlines, took off from Katunayake Airport with 8 crew members aboard at around 6.15 am today and reached Amritsar Airport in India a few hours ago.

The students are scheduled to be directed to mandatory quarantine following the disinfection process.

The national carrier is operating special flights from India’s Amritsar, Coimbatore, Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore and Nepal’s Kathmandu to bring back 433 Sri Lankan students who have been stranded overseas due to the prevailing travel restrictions imposed in view of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka’s High Commissions in these states have obtained permission from the respective civil aviation authorities to operate these special flights. 

A group of 113 Sri Lankan students stranded in Pakistan were repatriated from Lahore and Karachi on Tuesday evening (21).

In the meantime, another batch of 117 Sri Lankans from Coimbatore on flight UL194 and 93 more from Kathmandu on UL 1425 will be repatriated tomorrow (24).

Meanwhile, Minister Bandula Gunawardana has assured that all Sri Lankan students and professionals stranded overseas will be repatriated under several phases.

Addressing the media briefing to announce Cabinet decisions today (23), he said there are nearly 580 students in India who left for higher education through the University Grants Commission (UGC).

A separate website will be launched in the near future to facilitate the repatriation process, Minister Gunawardana added.