Families granted opportunity to send care packages on cargo freights to Colombo

Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid, on Monday, announced the decision to allow families to send care packages to their loved ones in Sri Lanka via the national airline Maldivian’s cargo freights which have begun operating to Colombo.

“We hope that this could provide some temporary relief to families in Sri Lanka,” said Shahid, in a tweet this afternoon.

Neighboring Sri Lanka, which hosts a thousands of Maldivian nationals, is currently under lockdown over the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move has left many Maldivian nationals stranded in the country, who continue to request the assistance of the Maldivian government to secure their return home to Maldives.

Commercial flights between Maldives and Sri Lanka have now been suspended. The national airline, Maldivian has now begun using its passenger planes to transport cargo to Maldives from Sri Lankan capital Colombo, Indian cities Trivandrum and Chennai, Dubai, and the Thai capital Bangkok.

The first cargo freight arrived in Maldives carrying 10 tonnes of perishables and medical products from Colombo on Sunday evening.