MONETABRIEF - At least 40 Iranian sailors from US-sanctioned oil tankers anchored just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters have sought urgent medical treatment on the island, officials said.

The merchant sailors were brought ashore through the port of Galle, 115 kilometres south of Colombo, over the weekend, officials said.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry confirmed that it had coordinated the ship-to-shore transfer of those in need of urgent care.

"We have coordinated the transfer and carried out our humanitarian obligations,” ministry spokesman Thushara Rodrigo told the French news agency AFP. “The costs were borne by the Iranian embassy."

The development highlights the growing humanitarian and diplomatic complications created by the presence of Iranian vessels off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, seven months after a US submarine sank an Iranian naval frigate nearby.

Vessels in Limbo

Nearly a dozen empty Iranian tankers are anchored close to Galle harbour, unable to return to Iran because of the US blockade and sanctions regime.

Iranian tankers and other merchant vessels have been stranded in the region for months, with many crew members confined on board.

Sri Lanka insists that the tankers are in international waters, where they enjoy freedom of navigation.

The vessels are positioned outside the country’s 12-nautical-mile territorial sea, limiting Colombo’s legal jurisdiction over them while leaving it to manage the practical consequences of their prolonged presence.

The Sri Lankan military has deployed reconnaissance aircraft and patrol boats to monitor the vessels, according to defence officials.

Authorities said many Iranian merchant vessels had moved east towards the Strait of Malacca and Singapore because of US sanctions, while a few remained near Sri Lankan waters.

Shadow of the Dena

The latest transfers come against the backdrop of the sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena off Galle on March 4, an incident that brought the Iran-US conflict uncomfortably close to South Asia.

The frigate, which had taken part in a multinational naval exercise in India and was returning home, was torpedoed by a US submarine in international waters off Sri Lanka’s southern coast.

Washington confirmed that one of its submarines fired the torpedo. Sri Lanka launched a major search-and-rescue operation after receiving a distress call.

Sri Lanka’s navy rescued 32 Iranian sailors, many of them injured, and took them to hospital in Galle. Officials later recovered 87 bodies, while dozens of crew members remained unaccounted for. Later counts put the death toll at 104.

The sinking was the first time a US submarine had sunk an enemy warship with a torpedo since the Second World War, according to US officials, and prompted Iranian accusations that Washington had escalated the conflict into the Indian Ocean.

Colombo’s Balancing Act

For Sri Lanka, the presence of Iranian tankers and the memory of the Dena disaster present a delicate diplomatic and operational challenge.

Colombo has sought to avoid being drawn into the confrontation while maintaining its traditional position that international shipping lanes off its coast must remain open. Colombo also maintains neutrality in the Middle East conflict since the US and Israel began attacking Iran.

While the US is Sri Lanka’s largest export market, Iran has been a key buyer of tea, Sri Lanka’s main export commodity. Sri Lanka’s only oil refinery built by Iranians and commissioned in 1969 is optimised to handle Iranian light crude.

Colombo has faced pressure to provide humanitarian assistance without appearing to facilitate sanctions evasion or provoke Washington. Sunday’s medical transfers were presented by officials as a strictly humanitarian operation, with Iran meeting the full cost.

Galle, which handled the rescue operation after the Dena sinking, has once again become the focal point of Sri Lanka’s response to the regional crisis.

Local hospitals and port authorities are now dealing with a second wave of Iranian nationals requiring medical care after months at sea. (Colombo/Oct25/2026)