Sri Lanka ends visas for hundreds of thousands of Russians staying there to avoid war (www.independent.co.uk)
from _xDEADBEEF@lemm.ee to world@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 12:32
https://lemm.ee/post/25043788

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autotldr@lemmings.world on 27 Feb 2024 12:35 next collapse

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Sri Lanka has told hundreds of thousands of Russians and some Ukrainians staying in the country to escape the war that they must leave in the next two weeks, immigration officers said.

The immigration controller issued a notice to the tourism ministry asking Russian and Ukrainian people staying on extended tourist visas to leave Sri Lanka within two weeks from 23 February.

The president’s office said that the notice had been issued without prior cabinet approval and the government had not officially decided to revoke the visa extensions, reported the Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror.

However, concerns have been raised over thousands of Russians and a smaller number of Ukrainians staying in the country for an extended period of time and even setting up their own restaurants and nightclubs.

Tourism minister Harin Fernando told Daily Mirror that the ministry has been receiving complaints of some Russian tourists running unregistered and illegal businesses in the southern part of the country.

In a bid to boost tourism and recover from its worst economic crisis since 2022, Sri Lanka began granting 30-days visas on arrival and extensions for up to six months.


The original article contains 358 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 47%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Mr_Blott@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 13:15 next collapse

An Israeli bloke was telling me the other day how loads of russian Jewish people had gone to Israel to avoid the war. Actually lol’d

Dasus@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 13:46 next collapse

Well if they’re gonna have to participate in fighting, perhaps they’re smart to choose the better equipped army who are “fighting” unarmed and malnourished children in an open-air prison.

The moral thing would be to not participate in either, ofc.

I’m just pointing out I can see the logic they used.

LufyCZ@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 13:57 next collapse

Yeah it’s not ironic at all, they won’t be conscripted in Israel

Mr_Blott@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 15:33 collapse

Admittedly an horribly flippant comment on my part. He was actually saying how most of the russian Jewish were highly educated and hardworking compared to the average Israeli, and a massive boon to the country

Not sure how to feel about that given both country’s circumstances

Wanderer@lemm.ee on 28 Feb 2024 00:07 collapse

Jews or “Jews”?

You can just say you’re a converted Jew right? With proof. There must be some people trying some shady shit to get the proof.

teft@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 13:35 next collapse

The fucking orcs were setting up whites only bars. Good for Sri Lanka for kicking them out.

Infiltrated_ad8271@kbin.social on 27 Feb 2024 13:44 next collapse

They didn't kick out that minority who ran racist businesses, they kicked out all the 288k people who reneged on their "duty" to go kill ukrainians and die for putin's aspirations.

Marsupial@quokk.au on 27 Feb 2024 14:44 next collapse

Maybe instead of living the peaceful life for a few years until the war ends, they’ll have to go hold their own country accountable.

Infiltrated_ad8271@kbin.social on 27 Feb 2024 15:06 next collapse

It would be ideal, but this is not something that can be solved with votes and protests. If I were in their shoes, I certainly wouldn't be the brave one who would give his life to rebel against tyranny.
It's not their responsibility either, they just had the bad luck to be born there.

isles@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 15:59 collapse

Easy words to type, difficult to live. Try considering the entirety of someone’s situation before prescribing their actions.

rdri@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 23:16 next collapse

That’s a wrong amount. Real figure is unknown, though surely much lower. Check the article.

livus@kbin.social on 28 Feb 2024 01:26 collapse

The fact that unregistered illegal Russian businesses had become an actual problem there indicates that Sri Lanka - a very poor nation that almost went bankrupt last year - is not equipped to deal with an influx of that size.

If you want someone to take on 288 thousand refugees I agree with you, but it shouldn't be Sri Lanka.

Tourism minister Harin Fernando told Daily Mirror that the ministry has been receiving complaints of some Russian tourists running unregistered and illegal businesses in the southern part of the country.

magnetosphere@kbin.social on 27 Feb 2024 13:44 next collapse

Seriously? “Thanks for letting us escape to your country, now stay the fuck out of our bar.” Major dick move.

Flumpkin@slrpnk.net on 27 Feb 2024 13:56 next collapse

The fucking orcs

were setting up whites only bars

This is so confusing, are we for or against racism?

STOMPYI@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 14:04 next collapse

Against.

MxM111@kbin.social on 27 Feb 2024 14:15 next collapse

Importantly we do not judge all by the actions of few.

franklin@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 14:39 next collapse

I’ve had this talk so many times, it’s a simple lesson but it needs repeating.

Cinner@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 15:01 collapse

It may be a conversation worth having in a 1 to 1, but internet denizens crave hate and hate as much as they can when they can.

Usually I get downvoted for “let’s come together” comments that say things like all Israelis and Russians shouldn’t die in a fire, because they are not all bad, when people are calling for culling them. The internet is weird.

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. - Agent Kay

hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Feb 2024 16:08 collapse

It’s Russian people who allow Putin to commit his shit

It’s Israelis who allow their government commit the shit

Cinner@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 16:43 collapse

It’s the Mongols who allowed Ghengis Khan to commit his shit.

Uh oh, now you should be worried considering his lineage is in most of us. Those damn Mongol ancestors of yours. Why were your ancestors so complicit in the rape and pillage of continents? I think that makes you complicit, too, by your logic.

Pitchforks at the ready everyone.

hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Feb 2024 16:57 next collapse

Ghengs Khan wasn’t democratically elected.

Cinner@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 17:19 collapse

That’s my point. Neither is Putin. Netanyahu’s approval ratings are rock bottom.

Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 17:39 next collapse

And the majority of Palestinians in Gaza weren’t even BORN the last time Hamas allowed elections, let alone old enough to vote!

99% of the times atrocities are committed by the powerful few, it’s against the will of the powerless many. Not least because the latter are also the ones who bear the brunt of the suffering.

But yeah, bigots gonna take any chance at more socially acceptable bigotry, I guess 😮‍💨

Marsupial@quokk.au on 28 Feb 2024 00:13 collapse

Yet they voted him in multiple times over decades full well knowing who he is.

And how much of his approval rating is only low because he didn’t have enough people on the Gaza border to stop the attack? They don’t care about what happens to Palestinians, the majority support it, they care that they were allowed to be attacked instead of being the attackers like usual.

misanthropy@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 23:41 collapse

Find me one person who got their trip to the “Homeland” who isn’t cheering for Gazan genocide? Obviously anecdotes, but numerous people I went to high school with have been posting horrendous shit since all this kicked off

Cinner@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 04:35 collapse

Obviously anecdotes

That’s the understatement of the cenozoic era.

hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Feb 2024 18:36 collapse

It’s not “few” orcs that have crossed the border to Ukraine. It’s not “few” orcs celebrating the ethnic cleansing of Ukraine. It’s the collaborative efforts of a nation

index@sh.itjust.works on 27 Feb 2024 19:37 collapse

Should i blame you because your government openly support genocide in gaza? I could but we both know that the government and people in power are the ones to blame, most people are feed up on the propaganda these criminals spread to gain wealth and power.

Nythos@sh.itjust.works on 27 Feb 2024 19:50 next collapse

That entirely depends on whether OP you’re replying to cheers for the destruction of Gaza and their government being complicit in it.

hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 27 Feb 2024 20:52 collapse

I assume you take me as American? I do think it’s fair to call out how dumb they’re voting, as it’s fair to do with Finland too

catloaf@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 15:04 next collapse

Russian is not a race.

Orcs are a race, but they’re fictional.

Flumpkin@slrpnk.net on 27 Feb 2024 15:22 next collapse

Race in humans is a fictional construct. Doesn’t exist scientifically.
So logically, racism can’t exist either.

Hey, did we just solve racism???

AFaithfulNihilist@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 15:42 next collapse

Just because angels, gods, gremlins and Eskimos are imaginary doesn’t mean that people can’t be afraid of them.

Flumpkin@slrpnk.net on 27 Feb 2024 16:36 next collapse

Racism has always been about inequality and dehumanizing people. It was always a constructed or mythological fixed identity.

But that’s not funny. That’s just sad.

It’s not funny like calling them orcs.

But that comment is 85% upvoted so clearly I’m wrong and that can’t be racism. Hey, maybe I have brain bleeds from long covid. Honestly that would be preferable to this shit. “Russians aren’t really hur hur hur”. Fucking racist morons.

nrezcm@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 21:27 collapse

You must be trolling because Eskimos aren’t imaginary. I use their tax software every year when I go to file my return.

MonsiuerPatEBrown@reddthat.com on 27 Feb 2024 17:01 next collapse

Race is a fiction that created a reality called racism.

God loves a trier, though.

John_McMurray@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 00:22 collapse

Not with that shit logic, no.

[deleted] on 27 Feb 2024 20:04 next collapse
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blahsay@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 20:16 next collapse

The Russians certainly consider themselves a race.

volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 23:01 collapse

…no? I’ve never heard anyone claim that

blahsay@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 23:53 collapse

Slavs. Otherwise known as ethnic Russians.

Otherwise known for squatting.

Justas@sh.itjust.works on 28 Feb 2024 09:39 collapse

Not all slavs are Russian. And most other slavs don’t like Russians either.

lolcatnip@reddthat.com on 27 Feb 2024 22:07 collapse

Russian is an ethnicity. Bigotry against an ethnicity is not different in any meaningful way from bigotry against a race. Referring to it as racism may be technically incorrect but it get the right idea across.

mojofrododojo@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 06:12 collapse

no one’s asserting ALL russians - Navalney was a hero for example.

But the country is run by a shitstain of a human being; calling them orcs or chuds is certainly justified by their warcrime actions.

Honytawk@lemmy.zip on 27 Feb 2024 23:45 collapse

The tolerance paradox isn’t a thing.

index@sh.itjust.works on 27 Feb 2024 19:33 collapse

The fucking orcs were setting up whites only bars. Good for Sri Lanka for kicking them out.

This comment sound as much racist as the people you are referring to, i hope you realize that you are just like them

TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works on 27 Feb 2024 19:44 next collapse

It sounds like the “orcs” this person was referring broke the tolerance contract first, by setting up white only bars. I see no problem here at all. Bigots aren’t deserving of any sort of civility.

locuester@lemmy.zip on 28 Feb 2024 01:48 collapse

So if a gang of African American people broke into my house and called me a cracker, does that grant me the right to call them by a derogatory name?

Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world on 29 Feb 2024 13:49 collapse

In what way is that racist?

Dentzy@sh.itjust.works on 27 Feb 2024 13:45 next collapse

I was going to say that I preferred them to stay in Sri Lanka, at least they would not become more soldiers for Putin… But moving there and then creating “whites only bars” 🤦, yeah, Sri Lanka is right in kicking them.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 14:06 next collapse

Because they are all the same? That’s a stupid fucking take right there.

Cinner@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 15:06 next collapse

Funny how everyone picked up on and quotes the single instance news story. Like litter boxes in school bathrooms, left-leaning edition. Let the hate flow through you

isles@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 16:02 collapse

These down votes sure seem like people unable to face their own hypocrisy.

Honytawk@lemmy.zip on 27 Feb 2024 23:48 collapse

Eh, sometimes you got to break a few eggs to stop a war.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 06:31 collapse

This gives them more troops.

Honytawk@lemmy.zip on 29 Feb 2024 13:06 collapse

Or more opposition to finally have a revolution that ends the war.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 29 Feb 2024 15:13 collapse

They ran, not because they wanted to fight on either side.

ABCDE@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 06:31 collapse

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68421131

It was one party, since cancelled. How do you think you’re justified in what you’re saying?

aniki@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 13:54 next collapse

Can I get a 6 month visa as a yankee? What a great place to digital-nomad!

Marsupial@quokk.au on 27 Feb 2024 14:46 next collapse

You’ve gotta wait for your civil war 2.0, it’ll probably be in the next 5-10 years at the rate your country is going.

NoIWontPickaName@kbin.social on 27 Feb 2024 15:18 collapse

I hope it’s sooner, my kids are still too young to fight and I am not yet too old

zabadoh@ani.social on 27 Feb 2024 22:36 collapse

If the Republicans follow the example of their Russian heroes, you’ll have to be over 80 to escape their version of the draft.

catloaf@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 15:10 next collapse

You know their economy basically collapsed in 2022, right? They’re still recovering.

aniki@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 15:44 collapse

Their economy. Not mine.

Wanderer@lemm.ee on 28 Feb 2024 00:11 collapse

Tonnes of websites will give you info on being a digital nomad.

Seeing as the country took a hit lately things should be cheap and they will be happy to have someone supporting the economy. If its safe it sounds like a real option.

FluffyPotato@lemm.ee on 28 Feb 2024 06:52 collapse

Digital nomad is just a word for tech bro immigrant, just like expat is a word for white immigrant. Just own it and say you’re an immigrant, it sounds less stupid.

SoonaPaana@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 15:48 next collapse

After all Sri Lanka does have previous experience with committing genocide and getting away with it.

poplargrove@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 17:01 collapse

War crimes in a civil war and immigration issues involving Russian tourists. They seem a tad bit unrelated :P

SoonaPaana@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 17:58 collapse

Yeah I understand. I got upset with few comments that were praising Sri Lanka. I just wanted to remind people that Sri Lanka has its skeletons too. Hidden away in mass graves.

spidermonkey23@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 19:24 next collapse

Hope they do the same in Seychelles. That’s where they’re going too.

brain_in_a_box@lemmy.ml on 29 Feb 2024 11:05 collapse

Why?

spidermonkey23@lemmy.world on 29 Feb 2024 16:13 collapse

For all the same arguments listed here.

Toldry@lemmy.world on 27 Feb 2024 20:46 next collapse

I visited Sri Lanka a few months ago, I remember visiting Hikkaduwa (a beach town in the south-west) and there were tons of Russian tourists there. All the local businesses had signs in Russran, and some hotels rooms even had Russian flags hanging from the balconies.

I remeber talking to a Belarussian woman who has escaped Belarus when the war on Ukraine started because she was a political dissident and it was dangerous for her to stay. She’s been working there as a waitress ever since she arrived.

volvoxvsmarla@lemm.ee on 27 Feb 2024 22:50 collapse

How did she feel about serving Russian tourists? I mean, not every Russian is pro Putin, let alone pro war. But if you feel the need to hang a freaking flag other than the one of the opposition from your hotel’s balcony you probably belong to the ribbon wearing scum.

Toldry@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 08:49 collapse

She described being enraged by them and wanting to strangle them, but then she takes a deep breath and reminds herself that that kind of violent impulse is what wrought this war in the first place, so she tries to avoid that type of thinking

John_McMurray@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 00:21 collapse

I mean this kinda awful. They’re not their government and they clearly don’t want to be part of the war.

mojofrododojo@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 06:09 next collapse

time to go home and overthrow the asshole who keeps fucking up their country.

fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de on 28 Feb 2024 09:51 collapse

Yeah rightly or wrongly this is how I feel.

Surely the Russian people need to bear some responsibility for their government’s actions.

sheogorath@lemmy.world on 28 Feb 2024 06:27 next collapse

I understand their response with this. IIRC Indonesia is having the same problems with Ukrainians and Russians staying in Bali to avoid the war. The situation got so problematic the local government added Russian to their warning signs.

Although the Russians are more problematic since their banks got sanctioned and cannot use Visa networks so they’re unable to pull any money from the ATMs and have resorted to taking local jobs and even panhandling there.

aljazeera.com/…/they-dont-respect-us-russians-fac…

AbackDeckWARLORD@sh.itjust.works on 28 Feb 2024 06:29 collapse

I mean this kinda awful. They’re not their government and they clearly don’t want to be part of the war.

But they are racist and have a “white only” policy in a country that isn’t even theirs. So why should that country host them?

It comes amid a furious social media backlash over Russian-run businesses with a “whites only” policy that strictly bars locals. These businesses include bars, restaurants, water sports and vehicle hiring services.

soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz on 28 Feb 2024 07:12 collapse

Do you think all russian citizens are racist?

I’m convinced this war has been going on long enough that xenophobia against Russians is considered acceptable which is fucking awful

hitmyspot@aussie.zone on 28 Feb 2024 08:39 next collapse

Of course not all Russian citizens are racist but there are varying levels of racism, homophobia and bigotry across the globe. Having a whites only policy would fall into that. Not many other countries citizens would be so bold as to do that on another country.

fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de on 28 Feb 2024 09:50 next collapse

It’s really unclear exactly what’s going on with that though. I’m morbidly curious to know how it really is.

I mean are their suburbs or areas with signs in every restaurant window saying “whites only!”, or was it a once-off altercation between a sri-lankan patron and a russion restauranteur? Probably something in between, but we really don’t know where exactly on that spectrum.

Honestly this happens to some extent in any holiday destination in SEA. Obviously it’s not as overt as having “Whites Only” signs, but it’s not necessarily a Russian thing.

hitmyspot@aussie.zone on 28 Feb 2024 12:29 collapse

A sign says this is not once off. This is a policy. The fact that the person even thought it was acceptable goes to show institutional racism. Let’s not give the benefit of the doubt to what this clear,y is, but yes, it certain,y is always worth finding all the facts.

afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world on 29 Feb 2024 08:20 collapse

Not many other countries citizens would be so bold as to do that on another country.

I see no one is going to bring up the Irish bars in the US. Alright.

emptiestplace@lemmy.ml on 28 Feb 2024 12:44 collapse

It is awful, but think of culture like software. In fact, think of it like Microsoft software.