Asia | So long, farewell

Middle-class Sri Lankans are fleeing their country

In despair for their future, skilled workers are leaving in droves

Mandatory Credit: Photo by CHAMILA KARUNARATHNE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (13757386o)People wait to get their passports inside the Department of Immigration and Emigration amid the country's worst economic crisis, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 07 February 2023. Sri Lanka has been thrown into an economic crisis, the worst in over seven decades, with goods prices increasing by at least threefold. According to the Sri Lankan Central Bank, inflation in December 2022 was 59.2 percent, with food inflation at 59.3 percent. Meanwhile, according to data from the Ministry of Labour and Foreign Employment, the highest number ever, more than 300,000 people with safe jobs abroad left the country in 2022. Overseas migration for employment has typically ranged from 200,000 to 225,000 per year.Sri Lankans struggle to get out of the crisis-hit country, Colombo, Sri Lanka - 07 Feb 2023
Image: REX/Shutterstock
|COLOMBO

At the height of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka last year, winding queues for fuel and cooking gas were matched only by lines at the immigration and emigration department. The nearly 875,000 passports it issued in 2022 was an all-time high. Most of those outside the nondescript building in Colombo were not looking for a post-pandemic getaway but workers aching to flee shortages, inflation and uncertainty.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Goodbye Colombo”

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