Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) has stated that 48 Sri Lankan employees who were supposed to leave for employment in South Korea could not fly out of the country as a result of a 10-hour-long flight delay.

Media Spokesman of the SLBFE, Deputy General Manager Senarath Yapa mentioned that the employment opportunities of those workers are at risk as they failed to reach South Korea as scheduled.

The SriLankan Airlines flight UL 470, which was scheduled to take off for Incheon, South Korea at 8.05 p.m. yesterday (24), had been delayed for 10 hours due to a technical error.

“According to a notice given to us regarding these 48 individuals, we had to rebook the flights. However, they didn’t get the opportunity to leave for South Korea as planned, due to the flight delay,” Mr. Yapa said further.

“Among them, there were 02 who had changed their leaving dates earlier, after recovering from Covid-19," and added that “In some ways, the flight delay can result in job uncertainty".

Meanwhile, he mentioned that the SLBFE has discussed the issue with the South Korean Human Resource Institute and that the job seekers would be notified once their response is received.