Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Due to the economic crisis suffered, residents Sri Lanka reported leaving the country in droves. In the first five months of 2022, authorities are reported to have issued 288,645 passports, compared to 91,331 in the same period last year.
At the Department of Immigration and Emigration, where people queue for hours to have their photos and fingerprints taken, a senior official said 160 staff members were exhausted. They are trying to fulfill the current passport request.
The department has tightened security, expanded working hours, and doubled the number of passports issued. But at least 3,000 people submit forms every day.
“It’s very difficult to deal with people because they are frustrated and don’t understand that the system is not equipped to handle this kind of request,” said HP Chandralal, a local official.
“So they got angry and blamed us, but there was nothing we could do,” he added.
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Photo: AP/Eranga Jayawardena Sri Lankans rush to buy cooking gas following the arrival of a cooking gas at a distribution center in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sunday, May 8, 2022. Diplomats and rights groups expressed concern Saturday after Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency and police used force against peaceful protesters amid the country’s worst economic crisis in recent memory.(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)- – |
The urgency for many to want to leave was compounded by a warning from Prime Minister (PM) Ranil Wickremesinghe. He said that the food crisis would occur in a few months.
In fact, the island nation of 22 million people is already short of food, gas for cooking, fuel, and medicine. The country’s government is considered to have mismanaged the economy, when the Covid-19 pandemic erased its foreign exchange reserves.
Currency depreciation, inflation of more than 33%, and fears of prolonged political and economic uncertainty also prompted many people to migrate. The government itself is said to be supporting more people working overseas to increase remittances, which the central bank says has halved in recent months.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has said Sri Lanka is at risk of a full-blown humanitarian emergency. The agency even plans to give $47.2 million to the country’s 1.7 million most vulnerable people.
In a bid to remedy the crisis, Sri Lanka is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a package bailout, after suspending external debt payments of about US$12 billion in April. The government estimates it will need at least US$5 billion to meet essential imports over the rest of the year.
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