Twenty Sri Lankans who had been arrested and remanded by Kuwaiti authorities for staying in the country without valid visas have been deported and have arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport, Hiru News and the Daily Mirror both reported on Sunday.
Why they were detained
Both outlets give the same account of how the group fell foul of Kuwaiti immigration law. All twenty had travelled to Kuwait legally for employment — including domestic work — but were arrested after leaving the workplaces named in their contracts to take up jobs elsewhere, which invalidated the visas tied to those contracts.
That is a specific mechanism, and it matters: these were not people who entered Kuwait illegally. Under the Gulf kafala sponsorship system, a migrant worker’s residency is bound to a single named employer, so leaving that employer — whatever the reason — converts a lawful worker into an undocumented one.
The flight arrived at around 3.10 a.m. The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment met the returnees at the airport and arranged financial assistance and onward transport to their home towns.
Two discrepancies
The two reports diverge on two verifiable details, and neither acknowledges the other:
- The date. Hiru says the group arrived “early this morning (20)”. The Daily Mirror, filing at 11.53 a.m. on 20 September under a Colombo dateline of the same day, says they were deported “early yesterday” and left Kuwait City at 3.10 a.m. “yesterday” — placing the arrival on 19 September. Both give the same 3.10 a.m. time.
- The airline. Hiru names Jazeera Airways flight J9-551. The Daily Mirror names “Al Jazeera Airlines flight JN-551”. Jazeera Airways is a Kuwaiti low-cost carrier whose IATA code is J9 and which operates the Kuwait City–Colombo route; there is no carrier called Al Jazeera Airlines. On this point Hiru’s version is the one that checks out.
A photograph released with the Hiru report shows the returnees waiting with their luggage inside the arrivals terminal. The group visible in it is almost entirely women, which fits the “domestic work” description neither outlet expands on.
Not reported
Neither outlet says how long the twenty were held in Kuwait, what the Sri Lankan financial assistance amounted to, whether any of them were recruited through licensed agencies or informally, or whether unpaid wages were recovered before deportation. Nor does either say whether more Sri Lankans remain in Kuwaiti custody on the same grounds — the figure that would show whether this is a routine repatriation or part of a wider Kuwaiti enforcement drive.
