The 32 sailors who were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy will remain in the island nation, the Foreign Ministry said.
Published on March 13, 2026
Sri Lanka is repatriating the remains of 84 Iranian sailors who died when their frigate was sunk nine days ago by a US submarine torpedo while sailing in international waters away from the theater of war, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.
The repatriation was announced on Friday and will take place on a charter plane sent by Iran, spokesman Untilhara Rodrigo told AFP. The Iranian embassy also confirmed that the bodies would be returned, the Reuters news agency reported.
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The sailors died when the IRIS Dena was torpedoed on March 4 off the coast of Sri Lanka, in a move that extended the ongoing Middle East war to the Indian Ocean and has been criticized as a flagrant violation of international law.
“The 32 sailors who were rescued by our navy will remain in Sri Lanka,” Rodrigo said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was contacted regarding the injured sailors but was not involved in the repatriation of the bodies, he added.
A second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, was allowed to enter Sri Lankan waters a day after the sinking of the Dena. Sri Lanka provides safe harbor for the ship and its crew of 219.
Sri Lankan officials said they have not started talks on the repatriation of the Bushehr crew and those rescued from Dena, but that they will be treated in accordance with Colombo treaty obligations.
Of the 32 sailors rescued and hospitalized, 22 have been discharged and are being held at an air force base in the south of the island, far from Bushehr’s crew. Sri Lanka is currently hosting a total of 251 Iranian sailors.
The Bushehr crew is being held at the camp while their ship is taken over by the Sri Lankan navy, which is attempting to repair one of two engines that was reportedly malfunctioning.
A third Iranian ship passed through Sri Lanka and entered safe harbor in the southern Indian port of Kochi. The 183 crew members of that ship are in Indian custody.
Colombo and New Delhi have said they provided shelter to the Iranian sailors due to “humanitarian considerations”, amid fears that they too could be killed in US strikes.
