Assisting immigrant detainees to contact families back home
08/03/13 – Boose, Sri Lanka: The Restoring Family Links (RFL) Department of the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) visited the Boose Immigration Detention Centre to look into the welfare of 72 immigrant detainees from Bangladesh & Myanmar.
They were taken into custody while being stranded in the Indian Ocean on a raft trying to sail to Indonesia.
Over 150 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar have been sailing to other countries and have been taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Navy after drifting in Sri Lankan waters. Most of them have been found in dire conditions without food or water. Many have been found dead while being rescued.
RFL Officials handed over 50 hygiene kits to the detainees. The kits were handed over by the Secretary of the SLRCS Galle Branch Mrs. L. L. Mendis to the Officer In Charge IP Lal Gamage.
Meanwhile officials of RFL department also inquired into the wellbeing of the detainees. During these discussions the officials recorded messages from the detainees, which will be related back to their family members back in their respective countries.
Red Cross hands over hygiene kits to refugees stranded in Sri Lanka
01/03/2013 – Colombo, Sri Lanka: The Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) yesterday (28th February 2013) handed over 50 hygiene kits to the 107 people from Bangladesh & Myanmar stranded in Sri Lanka after they were found on a raft in international waters near Sri Lanka.
They are currently housed at the Mirihana Immigration camp.
The request for their welfare came from the Ministry of Immigration and Emigration and from the High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Sri Lanka.
Kamal Yatawara from SLRCS Restoring Family Links programme visited the detainees and inquired into their wellbeing.
