Sri Lankan immigration officials stopped the president's brother and former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa from flying out of the country on Tuesday, as anger mounted over the island's worst economic crisis in decades.
It was not clear where Rajapaksa, who also holds U.S. citizenship, was trying to go. He resigned as finance minister in early April as street protests surged against shortages of fuel, food and other necessities, and quit his seat in parliament in June.
"Given the unrest in Sri Lanka, immigration officials are under tremendous pressure to not allow top-level people to leave the country," K.A.S. Kanugala, chairman of the association, told Reuters. The Rajapaksa family, including former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, has dominated the politics of the country of 22 million for years and most Sri Lankans blame them for their current misery. Police have said that if a court ordered, they could investigate how about $50,000 in cash was found by protesters at the president's house.
In recent months, neighbour India has extended billions of dollars in loans to Sri Lanka to help pay for vital supplies. China has intervened less publicly but said it supports efforts for the island nation to restructure its debt.The tourism-dependent economy was hammered badly by the COVID-19 pandemic and a fall in remittances from overseas Sri Lankans, while a ban on chemical fertilisers damaged farm output. The ban was later reversed.
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