Sri Lankan students in N.B. 'disturbed' by economic crisis at home

Some international students from Sri Lanka at the University of New Brunswick say recent events in their home country are very disturbing and have serious financial implications for them.

The island nation is experiencing its worst economic downturn since independence in 1948.

There have been unprecedented shortages of food and fuel, record inflation, blackouts and massive protests demanding the president resign.

"Here in Canada, we don't know what to do, so we are getting really stressed day by day," said Kaushal Rathnayake, a fourth-year PhD biology student.

"The country's economy is going down very steadily and fast," he said, "and people are having a really tough time."

Sri Lanka's tourism-dependent economy took a hit during the pandemic, said Rathnayake, but things were "really fine" until the middle of last year.

Then the government made some "unwise" and "unnecessary" tax cuts for large importing and exporting companies.

Corruption is also believed to have contributed to the problem.

It all led up to a "hefty" deficit and Sri Lanka becoming unable to get money for imports or exports.

It ran out of oil and gas, which prompted the government to turn off the power for part of the day and more recently it ran out of essential drugs.

"The people got really mad," said Rathnayake.

They see government mismanagement as the cause.

Despite "huge oppression" from the government, he said, people have taken to the streets en masse, night and day, demanding the president and his family members step down.

"Our parents, our friends and our relatives you name it everyone are in the streets right now. They're protesting against the government saying they can't survive in this country."

The reasons they're protesting are understandable, said Supun Weerasinghe, a fourth-year UNB business undergraduate student.

A few months ago, everyone was able to afford food every day, he said. Now, with inflation of about 17 per cent a lot of people can't afford basic necessities.

The electricity is out about half the time and there's no propane, which most households use for cooking.

Weerashinghe said he hopes the people in charge do what is necessary to make things right.

"It is really, really hard to see what's going on," he said.

And with the dive that the Sri Lankan rupee has taken, it's also hard to expect their parents to keep paying Canadian tuition.

"If they sent us 10 lakhs before," said Weerashinghe, now they have to send more than 15 for the same amount of Canadian dollars."

In addition, the Sri Lankan government has placed restrictions on the outflow of money, so even parents who have it can't send it.

Rathnayake said he has some friends from the University of Saskatchewan who are leaving Canada because they can no longer afford tuition.

UNB students are getting by, he said, by living together and pooling resources. Most of them have dropped down to part-time studies, he said, to cut tuition costs.

Weerashinghe said he has enough for day-to-day expenses because he works. But he's unable to earn enough to cover tuition.

The Canadian government limits international students from working more than 20 hours a week.

He hopes the issue is resolved before next semester.

Rathnayake is hoping UNB and other universities across Canada reach out to their Sri Lankan students to offer mental health resources as well as leniency if they're having financial difficulties.

"These are hard times to these students," said Rathnayake.

"Even a kind word matters."

UNB has a couple of dozen students from Sri Lanka, said a university spokesperson, adding support is available to them from theInternational Student Advisor's Office and counselling services.

That support includes an emergency bursary program for unexpected financial difficulties. UNB said payment plan options are also available through its financial services department.