A claim that Sri Lankan students were flown home by Pakistan after they were stranded during the county’s COVID-19 lockdown has been shared on Facebook and WhatsApp.
The Sinhala text graphic translates to English as: “While Sri Lankan air planes flew the Chinese home, we thank Pakistan for providing an aircraft to bring our stranded students home.”, Below is a screenshot of the misleading\xa0Facebook post:, China brought a group of its citizens home from the UK to Shanghai on a SriLankan Airlines plane during the coronavirus crisis in April 2020. The move\xa0prompted\xa0criticism from former Sri Lankan\xa0Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who questioned why China did not use one of its own airlines for the journey,\xa0Sri Lankan news site NewsWire reported on April 15, 2020., In response, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka said there were no other direct flights available and said it appreciated “Srilankan\s help"., A similar claim about Pakistan\s purported assistance to stranded Sri Lankans during the coronavirus pandemic was also shared on WhatsApp. The Sinhala-language message translates to English as:\xa0"SriLankan for the Chinese. Pakistani assistance for our fellows. Are\xa0the 6.9 million happy now?", Below is a screenshot of the misleading message:, The claim is false., SriLankan Airlines said in an official statement that 113 Sri Lankans were repatriated on SriLankan flights from the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore on April 21, 2020., “These special flights are being operated as part of the Government of Sri Lanka’s programme to bring back Sri Lankan students stranded in foreign countries and are being carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the statement said., Sri Lankan TV journalist Shehan Madawa\xa0published photos and video on Twitter here of the chartered SriLanka Airlines flights from Pakistan landing in Sri Lanka on April 21., UPDATE - This is how the passengers were disembarked from flight UL 1206 from #Lahore to #Colombo#SrilankanAirlines @flysrilankan #COVID19 https://t.co/JjZYgBxkCm pic.twitter.com/r9ZpVvZYXD, , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
False claim circulates that Pakistani plane transported Sri Lankan students home after COVID-19 lockdown | AFP Fact Check