Bangkok:
Former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is expected to arrive in Thailand on Thursday and temporarily reside in a second Southeast Asian country since fleeing his island country last month amid mass protests.
Rajapaksa fled to Singapore on July 14 and resigned shortly after, amid unprecedented unrest over his government’s handling of the worst economic crisis in seven decades, and days after thousands of protesters barged into the president’s official residence and office.
The former military officer, who is the first Sri Lankan head of state to resign early, is expected to travel from Singapore to the Thai capital Bangkok on Thursday, two sources said. It was not clear what time he would arrive.
Thai authorities said Mr Rajapaksa had no intention of seeking political asylum and would only stay temporarily.
“This is a humanitarian issue and there is an agreement that it is a temporary stay,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters on Wednesday.
Prayuth also said that Mr Rajapaksa could not participate in political activities in Thailand.
Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said the current Sri Lankan government supported Mr Rajapaksa’s trip to Thailand, adding that the former president’s diplomatic passport would allow him to stay for 90 days.
Mr Rajapaksa has not appeared publicly or commented since his departure from Sri Lanka and Reuters was unable to contact him immediately.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is the result of several factors, including COVID-19, which has affected the tourism-dependent economy and reduced workers’ remittances abroad, rising oil prices, populist tax cuts and a seven-month ban on the imports of chemical fertilizers last year that devastated agriculture.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)