Sri Lankan police have arrested three Bangladeshis for violating immigration laws, reports local media.
The arrests were made late on Saturday (May 4) from the Mulleriyawa-Kelanimulla town, about 9 kilometres west from capital Colombo, says online news outlet Adaderana.
Quoting police, it said the Bangladeshis, aged 32, 28, and 12, had been staying in the country without valid documents.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Riaz Hamidullah told Bangla Tribune on Sunday (May 5), “I heard the news and asked the Sri Lankan authorities to provide me the details.”
The South Asian island country is still reeling from the Apr 21 Easter Day bombings on churches and hotels in capital Colombo, which left 253 people, including foreigners . In the aftermath of the attacks, Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency disrupting normal life, including closing down markets and educational institutions.
When asked if the schools are opened, the High Commissioner Hamidullah said, “The [Sri Lankan] government has decided to open educational institutions tomorrow [Monday], but the Church here is saying that the situation is not conducive to open it.”
The private schools are reluctant to open their institutions and it is not clear whether the International schools will resume academic activities from Monday, he said.
Meanwhile, a source in Sri Lanka seeking anonymity said, police have deported a good number of people, including Bangladeshis, Indians, Maldivians and Pakistanis.
He said the police also identified about 1,000 Muslims foreign-origin clerics who teach at madrasas across the country.
Sri Lanka home minister had already said most of them if not all violated the immigration laws and they would all be deported, the source said.
“So far, about 600 foreign nationals, including 200 clerics have been deported from the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Saudi embassy in Colombo in a tweet on Apr 30, nine days after the bombings, requested all of its citizens to leave the country.
Many in the Lankan administration said they believe that some of the Muslim clerics are Saudi nationals, according to another source.