by Sanath Nanayakkare
Minister of Labour and Foreign Employment, Manusha Nanayakkara alleged loose checking of passports by some immigration officers at the Katunayake International Airport on receiving bribes.
“We know that some immigration officers are taking bribes and supporting illegal human trafficking through the Airport. These are pre-arranged, well-coordinated exercises. The cohorts are connected to one another in this operation. These migrants who come to the departure lounge are informed well in advance which passport counter they should join, and to which officer they should produce their passports. And then their passports are not checked thoroughly in line with the purpose they are leaving the country. Some people even enter the airport building with one passport and get another passport inside the airport building. The involved immigration officers do not properly examine the integrity of their travel documents,” he alleged.
The minister made these remarks while speaking at the opening of the Safe Migration Promotion Unit at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake on Monday.
He pointed out that those immigration officers involved in this exercise should think of the consequences of allowing unfit persons to leave for overseas jobs because they face hardships they can’t endure in the countries they go to, and end up in great misery.
“In recent times, the country had to bear the cost of deploying 3 planes to bring back such migrant victims, using public money. I must tell you that efforts to curb human trafficking and illegal emigration for foreign jobs cannot be stopped by just one entity. It should be a combined effort involving the Ministry of Defence, CID, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, Airport and Immigration and Emigration officials and other relevant officials,” he said.
The newly opened unit has been established with the aim of preventing Sri Lankans going abroad for work on tourist visas and to prevent them from becoming victims of human trafficking. The unit will also provide proper guidance to Sri Lankan migrant workers to find safe work environments according to their skills. It mainly focuses on those who go to Malaysia, Oman, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on tourist visas in search of jobs.
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