The crew had been treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters.
The attack on Dena was the first military strike far outside the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran a week ago.
Those discharged overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district, as Sri Lanka's navy ended its search on Sunday for survivors from the vessel. Just over 60 people remain missing, according to an official Sri Lankan estimate.
"Another 10 are still undergoing treatment," a medical officer at the hospital told AFP. He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington to stop the Iranians from returning home, saying Colombo would be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
The survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance, officials said.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, which was allowed to enter Sri Lankan waters after the Dena was sunk.
The crew from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their vessel has been taken over by Sri Lanka's navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
-Pressure denied -
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr personnel and Iranian crew rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
"The United States, of course, respects and recognises Sri Lanka's sovereignty in the handling of this situation," the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on "humane" grounds after it too reported engine problems.
"I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The three ships were part of a multinational naval exercise held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday. "A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility," Jaishankar said.
Sri Lankan authorities meanwhile reported an oil slick at another nearby beach resort and said about 50 workers and volunteers had been deployed for a clean-up, while boats were being sent to check for more pollution.
"We saw a thin oil patch at Hikkaduwa beach yesterday," said Samantha Gunasekara, chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA).
He added that parts of a damaged life raft, an barrel of lubricants and footwear had washed ashore, and officials were trying to establish if they were from the sunk Dena.
Sri Lanka to treat Iranian sailors according to 'international law'
New Delhi (AFP) Mar 7, 2026 -
Sri Lanka will treat Iranian sailors rescued from a torpedoed frigate according to international law, a minister said Saturday, following reports Washington was pressuring Colombo to not repatriate them.
Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told a conference in New Delhi that Sri Lanka was caring for 32 sailors from the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena under Colombo's international treaty obligations.
The frigate was sunk by a US submarine on Wednesday just off Sri Lanka's southern coast.
Sri Lanka sent its navy to rescue survivors and recover 84 bodies.
Asked if Colombo was under pressure from the US to not repatriate the Iranians, Herath did not answer directly.
"We have taken all the steps according to international laws," Herath said.
Sri Lanka also provided safe haven to a second Iranian warship, the IRIS Bushehr, and evacuated its 219 crew a day after the Dena was torpedoed.
The ship was taken to Trincomalee on Sri Lanka's northeast coast after reporting engine problems.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on "humane" grounds after it too reported operational problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last Saturday.
"I think it was the humane thing to do and I think we were guided by that principle," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishkar said.
The Lavan docked in the southwest Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
"A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility," said Jaishkar.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said this week that Colombo would follow the Hague Convention, which requires a neutral state to hold combatants of a warring state until hostilities end.
A senior administration official said Colombo was in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross to deal with the survivors of the torpedoed ship.
International humanitarian law applied to the survivors from the Dena, an official said, and the wounded could be repatriated at their request.
Iranian diplomats in Colombo said they have asked for the remains of 84 sailors killed in the US attack to be taken back to Iran.
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