No fuel, no hope: Sri Lankans flee crisis in mass brain drain

No fuel, no hope: Sri Lankans flee crisis in mass brain drain

COLOMBO - Shamla Yoosoof, an investment researcher from Colombo, left Sri Lanka with her three-year-old son and a jam-packed suitcase, swapping economic chaos at home for a new start in Dubai.

She flew out in June to join her husband who had secured a job as a sales and marketing director there weeks before - one of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan professionals escaping the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.

Although the exact number of migrants was unavailable, both preliminary data and business leaders suggested the scale of the brain drain was serious enough to delay any economic recovery.

Yoosoof, for one, did not know when - or if - they would ever be back.

"It took a long time to convince my husband (to leave Sri Lanka) because he was someone who believed in the country and wanted to stay," said the 30-year-old.

But by March, she said the crisis - which saw fuel shortages spiral into economic meltdown alongside political protests that ousted the president - had made daily life too hard.

"We realised that if we do not jump ship (soon) it was going to be difficult for us (to leave the country)."

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