Sri Lanka evacuates 40 Iranian sailors from ships stranded off its coast

Sri Lanka helped bring 40 Iranian sailors ashore from commercial ships stranded in international waters off its coast and supported their return to Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo said on 25 October, AsiaOne reports. He said the Iranian embassy had made the request through diplomatic channels and that the sailors had unspecified medical emergencies. According to AsiaOne, crew from 19 ships were landed at Galle and returned to Iran early on Sunday; local media reported they came from US-sanctioned oil tankers, which the ministry did not confirm. Al Jazeera Arabic, citing ship-tracking data, counts 20 Iranian tankers waiting off Sri Lanka, some since mid-July, among them Amber, Dream II, Deep Sea and Sevin.

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