The Ministry of Foreign Relations says that five Sri Lankan migrant workers in Romania have been confirmed as positive cases of COVID-19.
Foreign media recently reported that seven Sri Lankans employed at a clothing factory in the Botosani, northern Romania had tested positive for the virus.
However, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Bucharest has confirmed that only5 Sri Lankans in Romania were identified as coronavirus-positive, the Foreign Ministry stated.
The patients are currently receiving treatment at hospitals, Sri Lankan mission in Romania has informed further.
Previous foreign reports also mentioned that 44 Sri Lankan migrants employed at the aforementioned clothing factory were fired after seven of them had tested positive for COVID-19.
Their employer had claimed that the Sri Lankan nationals in question had not reported to work over the fear of infecting with the novel coronavirus. He also claimed that the 44 Sri Lankans were fired after they had refused to come to work.
The Romanian Labour Inspectorate later commenced probes in this regard after being notified of the incident.
The labour inspectors had pointed out that the Sri Lankan employees have the same rights as their Romanian colleagues and probes are currently underway to see whether the layoffs were abusive.
