The Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau said nearly 10,000 Sri Lankan workers in the Middle Eastern region have lost their employment.

Froeign Employment Bureau Spokesman Mangala Randeniya said nearly 40,000 have applied to return to the country in the aftermath of the COVID19 outbreak in the region.

He also added that the government had taken meaures to repatriate Sri Lankan workers who are stranded overseas.

The govenment's programme to repatriate Sri Lankans stranded overseas came to a halt with the surge if COVID19 cases in the country.