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| Sunday, 5 October 2003 |
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Immigration and Emigration officers not carrying out duties - controller by Don Asoka Wijewardena
With human smuggling and various other connected rackets,including forgeries of both passports and travel documents on the increase,the Department of Immigration and Emigration has incurred a lot of flak for not carrying out its duties. Complaints by reputed airlines and embassies have added fuel to the questions,as have allegations of immigration officials being involved in human smuggling operations. Is there any truth to the allegations, and what is being done to change the image of the department? Controller of Immigration and Emigration, Mervyn Wijesekera in an interview with the Sunday Observer, explains the steps taken to varnish the image of the department and its plans for the future. Excerpts from the Interview Q: We understand that several embassies and airlines have complained to the government about the failure of some immigration officers to detect fake Sri Lankan passports,and that a number of Sri Lankans had been detected in foreign countries with forged travel documents. This has tarnished the image of the department and the country. What have you to say about that? A: When this incident was brought to my attention, I immediately appointed some officers to investigate the case with the assistance of the CID. After the preliminary inquiry was completed, the investigating officers recommended that a huge irregularity involving about six senior immigration officers had occurred at the airport. Investigations also revealed that some immigration officers were not performing their duties properly and were hand-in glove with some organised human smuggling groups. Six officers were interdicted for allowing fake passport holders to leave the country without conducting proper immigration formalities. Another investigation found that some immigration officers were in the habit of destroying embarkation cards filled by passengers. Of the six,one officer was found to have permitted a particular passenger wanted by the CID for human smuggling racket, to leave the country. Q: You said six officers were interdicted. Is an inquiry being held and what will happen to them? A: On the recommendation of my investigation officers, those six officers were interdicted for alleged negligence and breaking immigration formalities. It was a departmental inquiry and they were interdicted and served with charge sheets. It is upto the Public Service Commission to appoint an inquiry officer to hold a full investigation and if they are not found guilty they will be reinstated. Q: You are reported to have set up a monitoring unit which closely examines the day-to-day job performance of immigration officers at the airport. How far is it effective and can you briefly explain the new process? A: Yes.I have appointed two Assistant Controllers in charge of the monitoring unit which examines the duties performed by the immigration officers. I have also received a number of complaints from passengers that immigration officers are not to be found at the respective counters at the time of arrivals. The monitoring unit is set up at the department headquarters and a computerised network is connected between the airport and the head office. Daily job performance of each officer can be monitored and any malpractice regarding immigration formalities could be detected by means of the new process. I must say the new system enables every immigration officer to be more vigilant and more efficient in performing his duties. Assistant Controllers Parakrama Fernando and R.M.S. Sarath Kumar have been appointed to deal with any matter regarding any lapses in immigration formalities at the airport. Any passenger can complain to Assistant Controllers or Senior Authorised officers or direct to me on irregularities or any malpractices with regard to immigration and emigration. I have also started a new process of detecting forged passports at the airport. In this process when an authentic passport is inserted into the computer,the computer generates all the information of the passport holder printed on the passport. When a fake passport is inserted nothing will appear on the computer monitor so that a fake one could be easily detected with the holder. Around two million passports have been computerised and I hope to computerise all passports before the end of this year. Q: Has the introduction of a digital passport system been effective in countering and eliminating forged passports? A: Yes.to a great extent. As we found some printing weaknesses of the "M series" passports,we introduced "N series" which is highly advanced and the special feature in "N series" is that it is extremely difficult to tamper or remove the printed data on the passport. In the "M series" the photograph and the required data are on the hard cover but in "N series" the photograph of the holder with a ghost image and computerised printed data appear on the second thin page of the passport. I am certain that nobody will be able to tamper with the second page due to its thinness. Q: As the Controller of Immigration and Emigration,what is your next strategy to upgrade the services rendered by the Department of Immigration and Emigration at the airport? A: I have noticed that the present immigration checking counters at the airport,both at arrivals and departures,are not adequate to handle large numbers of passengers simultaneously. It is obvious that more and more Sri Lankans and large numbers of tourists are arriving or departing from the country. We have planned to build 16 additional departure counters and 27 arrival counters at the airport, a Euro-bridge in which passengers can enter and go to the respective flight through a tunnel will also be made available shortly for the convenience of passengers. We recently recruited 25 graduates to fill the vacancies of the department and they are being trained on border control procedures,computer technology and immigration and emigration procedures at our well-equipped in-service training institute maintained by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). |
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