Stranded Iranian sailors receive urgent medical assistance in Sri Lanka

Around 40 stranded Iranian sailors aboard U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers anchored just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters received urgent medical treatment in the island nation on Saturday (October 24, 2026), Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said.

On Saturday (October 24, 2026), Sri Lankan authorities facilitated the transfer of the Iranian sailors from their vessels to the shore through the port of Galle in the country’s Southern Province, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo told The Hindu. “We coordinated the transfer alone as per our humanitarian obligations. The Iranian Embassy bore all the expenses,” he said.

A senior official at the Iranian Embassy in Colombo confirmed the development and said the sailors were taken from Galle to Colombo for medical attention before leaving Sri Lanka on Saturday night (October 24, 2026), indicating they spent only a few hours on the island.

The development comes a month after The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. “pressure” through sanctions had left the Iranian vessels stranded in Sri Lankan waters. At the time, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said Colombo would not be extending assistance to the sanctioned vessels, while emphasising that the secondary sanctions were part of a broader directive from Washington, D.C. and not specific to Sri Lanka. Denying media reports of U.S. pressure on Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said the Sri Lankan government made decisions “strictly protecting the country’s sovereignty”, even as it was prepared to intervene appropriately on humanitarian grounds.

Also read | U.S. will ‘bitterly regret’ attacking IRIS Dena: Iranian Foreign Minister 

Earlier this year, Sri Lanka made headlines when a U.S. submarine attacked and sank Iranian frigate IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, off the island’s southern coast. At least 84 people were killed in the torpedo attack, which sent shockwaves across the region. Sri Lanka’s ruling Anura Kumara Dissanayake administration, while reiterating its commitment to a “neutral foreign policy”, directed its Navy to evacuate the injured sailors. They were subsequently treated at a public hospital in the Galle district.