Dear Sri Lankans living on the West Coast States in USA Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka by its circular No 60 /2022 / file No FA/OSL/2/1 has instructed all missions abroad to help in establishing a database of Sri Lankans living in their assigned territories. The government is of the opinion that having a centralized database will be of value in facilitating various official purposes such as providing emergency / consular assistance, policy formulation, promoting engagement of overseas Sri Lankans in economic / development activities, etc Having experienced the difficulties of not having a properly updated Database in providing services to you all during the recent Pandemic,we are sure that you will agree with us how difficult it would be without a current database in an extremely unlikely event similar to having to evacuate Sri Lankans from Russia and Ukraine. We at the Consulate General requested all Sri
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Quarantine measures for travelers arriving to Sri Lanka from overseas during the Pandemic of COVID-19. Dates: Effective from July 1st to July 31st, 2021. See details below: 26th June Health Directive
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Mr. Moustafa Keir, the lawyer of a prominent Sri Lankan student who was accused of plotting to assassinate Australian politicians said he will sue police after prosecutors dropped terrorism charges on Friday. Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen, 25, was arrested in August and accused of writing in a notebook plans to kill then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and then-Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Police also alleged the PhD student possessed plans to carry out a “lone wolf” attack on several public places, including the Sydney Opera House, and he appeared to have links to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. Nizamdeen, a respected business student at the University of New South Wales, spent four weeks in jail after being charged with making documents to facilitate terrorist acts. He was kept in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison along with convicted murderers. Prosecutors withdrew the charges in Sydney’s Central Local Court
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Commanding General of the US Army Pacific (USARPAC) General Robert B. Brown has commended the present Sri Lankan Government’s reconciliation program which aims to enhance the harmony among different communities. General Robert B. Brown, who is leading a USARPAC delegation to Sri Lanka at the invitation of Sri Lanka Army Commander Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake, made this remark when he called on President Maithripala Sirisena this week at the President’s Office. The US Army’s largest Service Component command delegation is visiting Sri Lanka aiming to launch a new chapter of mutual friendship between the two countries and enhance military cooperation and the understanding in the South Asian region. During the meeting, the two sides discussed at length on ways the US military could assist the Sri Lankan military in the regional disaster management process and how international training opportunities could be opened for Sri Lanka’s peacekeeping force. The USARPAC Commanding
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Sri Lanka and India have held the 29th International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) meeting in the mid seas on Thursday (03) to discuss maritime issues common to both countries. The 29th IMBL meeting between the navies of the two countries was held onboard Indian Naval Ship ‘Sumithra’ at the Indo-Sri Lanka Maritime Boundary Line off Kankasanthurai yesterday (03 May 2018). During the meeting, matters related to maritime security in the region were discussed at length. Commander Northern Naval Area, Rear Admiral Muditha Gamage headed the Sri Lankan delegation consisting of 11 officials from both Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Coast Guard. The Indian delegation comprising 9 officials headed by Flag Officer Commanding Tamil Nadu Naval Area, Rear Admiral Alok Bhatnagar. Defense Attaché to the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka Captain Ashok Rao also attended this event. The IMBL meeting, held biannually to strengthen relationship and operational readiness between
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Sri Lanka Coast Guard lifeguards reached another important milestone in their lifesaving activities passing the 1000 mark in rescued lives when lifesavers attached to the Hikkaduwa lifesaving station rescued three local youth from being swept away to sea. The three youth, aged between 19 – 21 years are residents of the Gampaha District were saved by Coast Guard lifeguards on duty at the popular southern beach in Hikkaduwa last week (17th April). This is a significant achievement for the Coast Guard lifesaving activities which began in 2009 with a small lifesaving team deployed at the popular Mirissa beach in the Southern coast. Since rescuing a Korean national in December 2009 at Mirissa, the SLCG lifeguards have been able to save more than one thousand lives including 405 foreign nationals from France, China, Australia, Thailand, Nepal, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Netherland, England, Russia and Germany, up to date, the Ministry of Defense
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The State Department wants to require all U.S. visa applicants to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers, vastly expanding the Trump administration’s enhanced vetting of potential immigrants and visitors. In documents to be published in Friday’s Federal Register, the department said it wants the public to comment on the proposed new requirements, which will affect nearly 15 million foreigners who apply for visas to enter the U.S. each year. Previously, social media, email and phone number histories were only sought from applicants identified for extra scrutiny, such as those who have traveled to areas controlled by terrorist organizations. An estimated 65,000 people per year are in that category. The new rules would apply to virtually all applicants for immigrant and non-immigrant visas. The department estimates it would affect 710,000 immigrant visa applicants and 14 million non-immigrant visa applicants, including those who want to come to
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“Sri Lanka does what the US can’t: Pull the plug on Facebook over hate speech, fake news.” A headline on CNBC, one of America’s premier news outlets as it reported on the steps taken by the Sri Lankan government in a bid to stem the flow of hate speech and fake news. What does Facebook have to say about it and what will happen next? The opening salvo of the CNBC article was that another country had joined the growing ranks of those saying Facebook’s content-filtering systems aren’t good enough. It went on to note that the ban in Sri Lanka came into effect after several years in which critics have said Facebook and the government were not doing enough to prevent the spread of harmful posts. In an emailed statement to CNBC, Facebook has stated that they have clear rules against hate speech and incitement to violence and work
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A 35-year-old man of Sri Lankan origin has suffered horrific injuries to his head and arm after two assailants, armed with a machete and a saber, stormed an Indian restaurant in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, RT news reported. The gruesome attack, from which both assailants managed to flee the scene, took place on Monday night in the area of the French capital which is home to a large South Asian community, according to local media reports. Horrified witnesses described two hooded men, reportedly armed with a saber and a machete, storming the venue. They rushed towards one of the diners, a 35-year-old man from the Sri Lankan community who was having dinner with his wife. The victim suffered severe cuts to his elbow, wrist and head in what amounted to a scalping, French media reported. He was rushed to hospital in critical condition and was still fighting for his life on
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The UAE is among the latest countries which have issued travel advisories on Sri Lanka, following the declaration of state of emergency in the Asian state. The country’s embassy in Colombo tweeted on Thursday that Emirati nationals should take precautions and vigilance when travelling to Sri Lanka, in view of the current situation there. UAE citizens are also advised to avoid crowded places and contact the embassy in case of an emergency. A top Sri Lankan official based in the UAE had earlier said that there’s no need to worry about the current security situation in the country. According to Sulaiman J. Mohideen, the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UAE, the emergency declaration is just a “preventive step” taken by authorities to ward off the spread of violence. “It is a measure to prevent the violence from spreading to other parts of the country, which is otherwise limited to some
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