Financial Times

A top commercial bank – concerned with the plight of fleeing migrant workers in Lebanon – is offering to repatriate trapped workers who maintain foreign currency accounts with them, by air at no cost.

Lalith Kotelawala, chairman of Seylan Bank said the bank thought of helping its customers who have been loyal to them for years. “We have 1,000-2,000 account holders in Lebanon and many more in the Middle East and they have been loyal to us. We owe them some gratitude and thought of helping bring them back,” he said.

The bank, among several local banks that have thousands of foreign currency accounts maintained by Sri Lankan migrant workers, placed advertisements in newspapers offering their help. It asked relatives of migrant workers in Lebanon to provide them details of where the workers are and contact details.“We have set up a call centre and hot lines. We will not abandon them in this moment of need,” he said adding that they would be repatriated even if it means chartering special flights. Kotelawala, probably Sri Lanka’s richest man and who donates a lot for charity, said if others there are also seeking help but are non -Seylan Bank customers, “ we will help them on humanitarian grounds.”

Bank officials some progress was being made based on the inquiries but that the situation is still fluid in Lebanon to work on some help-initiatives.