The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has handpicked 14 hotels throughout the island to accommodate 30,000 migrant workers who will be repatriated under a new scheme, DailyNews Newspaper reported.

Last week under a revised quarantine regulations programme, the Government reduced its compulsory quarantine period for migrant workers from 14 days to seven days.

SLBFE Media Spokesman Mangala Randeniya told the Daily News that his Bureau is currently drawing up a plan to bring these workers within three months and to waive their hotel charges during their mandatory quarantine stay.

“Now, they have to pay for their airfare only and the Government will look after their hotel expenses,” Randeniya said.

Randeniya further said the SLBFE has identified 14 three-star hotels to accommodate these returnees who would be coming in batches of 800 passengers. “We may accommodate them at Army camps also when the designated hotels are full.”

Stranded workers are found mostly in Qatar, Kuwait and Jordan, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Spelling out the requirements for availing of these new services, Randeniya said primarily, the beneficiaries should have been registered with the SLBFE before their departure to their overseas workplaces.” They will also be required to sign a declaration at the Lankan missions in the respective countries that they cannot afford to pay for the hotel charges during the seven-day quarantine period in Sri Lanka.” (DailyNews)