The Minister announced this during a meeting held at his Ministry sept(23). Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga, State Minister for Foreign Employment Promotion
Priyankara Jayarathna and officials of the Airport and Aviation Services Ltd, Sri Lanka Army, and Foreign Employment Bureau were present.
Expressing his views at the meeting, Labour Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said:
PCR tests on the expatriate workers on their arrival in the country are scheduled to be done at the new Laboratory set up in the Airport premises. As a gratitude for their services of remitting their hard-earned money to the country, the Foreign Employment Bureau has decided to pay the PCR tests charge of 40 US dollars on behalf of them, the Minister said.
Speaking during the meeting, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said the main aim of the program is to allow these expatriates to go home three hours after the PCR is done. He further said that fully vaccinated expatriates can directly go home unless they are tested positive for the disease.
Meanwhile, State Minister Priyankara Jayarathna said this program has been implemented by giving special attention to the Sri Lanka workers employed in the Middle East, and Korea.
Secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Pathirana, Chairman of the Foreign Employment Bureau Retired Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe and the Vice Chairman of the Airport and Aviation Services Ltd Rajeeva Suriyaarachchi participated.
