Thank You, (Don’t) Come Again

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Sri Lanka ordered thousands of Russians and some Ukrainians staying on extended visas and escaping the war between their two countries to leave within two weeks, coinciding with a backlash over alleged racist policies enacted in Russian-run businesses on the island, the Independent reported this week.

Official numbers show that since the war began, around 288,000 Russians and 20,000 Ukrainians have landed in Sri Lanka on a regular 30-day visa. However, it is unclear how many visitors have overstayed. The Sri Lankan government has offered them free extensions, the latest being due to the “non-operation of airlines in the region,” NBC News explained.

Noting that “the flight situation has normalized,” immigration authorities canceled the extension on Feb. 23, giving tourists a two-week grace period to leave the country should they fail to renew their visas formally.

The move comes after an advert for a party in a Russian-run café in the country’s south caused controversy on social media.

Organizers of the “Opening White Party,” scheduled for Feb. 24, had limited entry to guests who could pass a “white” face control. Public outcry forced them to call off the event, apologizing “to everyone whose feelings were hurt” but criticizing “an inflated opinion about racism,” the local Daily Mirror reported.

Nonetheless, the office of Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe ordered a probe into the immigration controller’s notice, saying that the government had not approved it beforehand. Observers considered it a move to prevent diplomatic rifts with Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has been a key source market for tourists to Sri Lanka since the Covid-19 pandemic, becoming the second-largest national group among tourists in the past three years.

Its nationals enjoyed a visa-on-arrival policy implemented by the Sri Lankan government in 2022 to boost tourism, which represents a significant part of the country’s income. The measure aimed to address the worst economic crisis Sri Lanka has had since breaking free from the United Kingdom in 1948.