KURULU KOOJANA KARIYAKARAWANA 
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Immigration seizes largest ever group of locals bound for Canada with forged visas
Colombo, March 25 (Daily Mirror) - Nine Sri Lankans who attempted to leave for Canada through a major human smuggling scam that charged Rs. 4.5 million each to fix a forged visa, were halted by the immigration officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) last evening (24), making it the largest group ever seized migrating to a foreign country with bogus travel papers.
The officials of the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) stationed at the BIA Departure Terminal took a local passenger for questioning when the Canadian visa pasted on his Sri Lankan passport was found to be forged.
The department’s Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) operating under the Investigation Division checked the passenger’s travel document through scanners to learn that the Canadian work visa was a forged one. His Sri Lankan passport was genuine, the sources said.
However, the arrest of the local passenger led to the arrest of another eight Sri Lankan passengers including a female bound for Canada with forged visas in their passports. They were all waiting in the departure lounge for the boarding pass to board SriLankan Airlines flight UL 225 to Dubai around 6.40pm yesterday.
A senior Immigration investigation officer told the Daily Mirror this was the first time in history such a large group was stopped at a local airport with forged travel documents.
Lengthy inquiries had revealed that each passenger had paid Rs. 4.5 million to get their forged visa pasted on the passport. The locals who were in their ages between 30 to 40 years were residents of Colombo, Dehiwala, Galle and Neluwa, the official said.
The group had been checked in to a hotel in Negombo by their coordinator prior to leaving for the airport last evening and the DIE officials had informed the BIA Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Unit regarding this.
A special team of CID officials from the airport had immediately visited the mentioned hotel in Negombo to arrest the coordinator of the scam, who was said to have charged millions of rupees from the passengers.
It was learnt that the mastermind of the Canadian visa scam is an ex-Sri Lankan currently domiciled in Toronto and had operated through the arrested local agent. The group along with their travel documents were handed over to the CID for further investigations.
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