{"id":157722,"date":"2016-02-18T13:51:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T08:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=157722"},"modified":"2016-02-20T23:47:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T18:17:47","slug":"sirisena-wants-sri-lankan-refugees-to-return-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-wants-sri-lankan-refugees-to-return-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Sirisena Wants Sri Lankan Refugees To Return Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Maithripala Sirisena last night extended an open invitation to all Sri Lankans, who went to Germany as refugees, to return back to Sri Lanka and enjoy the freedom the country offers to all its communities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-abuses-power-again-appoints-loser-slfp-mps-to-special-projects\/maithripala-43\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-153804\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-153804 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Maithripala.jpg\" alt=\"Maithripala\" width=\"130\" height=\"119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Maithripala.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Maithripala-300x276.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 130px) 100vw, 130px\" \/><\/a>Addressing a media briefing soon after his discussion with Germany\u2019s Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel, Sirisena said that all Sri Lankans who left the country as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=refugees&amp;x=11&amp;y=3\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">refugees<\/span><\/a> due to the conflict can now return back to Sri Lanka and enjoy the freedom and also live freely.<\/p>\n<p>He also extended his appreciation to the German Government for the assistance extended to Sri Lanka in carrying out development work over the past few decades.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the press briefing, the Chancellor said that she was happy with the democratic changes which took place in Sri Lanka under the leadership of President Sirisena and expressed her satisfaction over establishing peace in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The German Chancellor also pledged every possible assistance for the future plans of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile\u00a0Sri Lankan citizens who sought political asylum abroad <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ceylontoday.lk\/51-115843-news-detail-returning-political-asylum-seekers-being-victimized-lawyer.html\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">are being victimized on their return<\/span><\/a> to the country in response to an invitation given by President Maithripala Sirisena, Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera said two weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p>He said, Tamil activist Puniyamoorthy Sasikaran, a resident of Batticaloa, had been arrested on 20, January by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) upon arrival at Katunayake on flight UL#319. Sasikaran fled the country by boat for Australia four years ago due to death threats and being followed by white vans during the former Mahinda Rajapaksa Government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":153804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sirisena Wants Sri Lankan Refugees To Return Home - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sirisena-wants-sri-lankan-refugees-to-return-back-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sirisena Wants Sri Lankan Refugees To Return Home - 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