A Sri Lankan man, 50, has been stranded in the Cook Islands since 2023, unable to complete the journey home because he cannot obtain a transit visa. Ruchira Ranasingha wants to return to Sri Lanka, but the air route from the remote Pacific territory requires a stop in a third country. Without permission to pass through that hub, airlines will not let him board.
The Cook Islands govern their own affairs in free association with New Zealand and lie scattered across a wide stretch of the South Pacific. International flights are limited, and almost any trip to South Asia involves at least one connection. For many passport holders, that connection is the obstacle, not the ticket itself.
Transit visas are required by some countries even when a passenger never leaves the airport. Sri Lankan citizens frequently need such approval for stops in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, or parts of the Gulf. Consulates can take weeks or months to decide, and a refusal leaves the traveler with no legal way onto the aircraft.
Until a transit state grants him passage, Ranasingha has no practical path back to Sri Lanka.
His case is hard to resolve because no single government controls every stamp on the journey. The Cook Islands cannot force another country to grant a transit visa. Distance from a Sri Lankan embassy also slows the paperwork that many visa systems demand.
Travelers in remote places can be left unable to move when a connecting country declines a transit request. The Cook Islands are not a major air hub, so there is no easy alternative routing that avoids the visa problem. Until a transit state grants him passage, Ranasingha has no practical path back to Sri Lanka.
