Dutch tourists on Sri Lanka flown home, ministry advice is for essential travel only

A TUI Boeing 737 MAX 8. Photograph: Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Alan Wilson via Wikimedia Commons

Dutch tour operators are to fly all 400 to 500 Dutch tourists on Sri Lanka back to the Netherlands, in the wake of the bloody Easter bombings.

The holiday sector’s calamity fund organisation Calamiteitenfonds says tourists will be brought back from Friday and the process is expected to take several days.

The repatriation follows tightened foreign ministry advice for travel to the island, which now recommends only essential trips should be undertaken.

There are ‘new reports that there is a big risk of follow-up attacks by terrorists on the run and religious revenge attacks should also be taken into account,’ the ministry said.

The death toll in the attacks, which had been as high as 359, has now been revised down to 250 to 260, including three Dutch nationals.

More on the current situation in Sri Lanka

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