COLOMBO: The snaking queues for food and fuel that crisscrossed Sri Lanka last year have given way to a different kind of line — people scrambling for travel documents to flee their bankrupt island.

"What we see as normalcy is a mirage," customer care executive Gayan Jayewardena, 43, told Agence France-Presse while queueing at a government office for a passport for his baby daughter.

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