Immigration warns of strict visa procedure for foreign religious propagandists

10 March 2025 10:53 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 22 Bookmark

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Colombo, March 10 (Daily Mirror) - The Department of Immigration and Emigration warns of strict procedure to issue visas for foreign religious propagandists who wish to organise various prayer meetings in Sri Lanka with clearance from many state offices, as many tend to abuse travel regulations with simple visit visas, the Daily Mirror learns.

The authorities are deeply concerned with a growing trend of foreign preachers who travel to Sri Lanka to hold their blessing festivals and prayer meetings with a mere tourist visa and engage in unlawful religious propaganda sans the knowledge of the local religious and cultural officials.

The matter came to light when two evangelical pastors from India tried to organise a two-day blessing festival in Jaffna, which had been barred by a special team of immigration officials sent from Colombo following complaints and strict protests from the areas Hindu religious groups.

The officials raided a congregation on Wednesday, which was being held at a venue identified as Christ Evangelical Church in Matakal West in Jaffna District on March 5, 6 and 7 and took two foreign pastors in for questioning.

A senior official from the department’s Investigation Division told the Daily Mirror about 100 people had gathered at the mentioned location for the religious meeting, which had been publicized with banners and posters as the 7th Anniversary of the Evangelical Christ Church.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that the two Indian nationals, who had been identified as Pastor Edwin Glory Thomas and Pastor Johnson had arrived in the country from Bangalore on the invitation of the local evangelical church for its blessing festival of healing and prayer.

However, upon inquiry they had produced their passports with a 30-day on arrival visit visa to participate in the religious festival, which had later been explained by the authorities as illegal to perform or propagate religious affairs without prior permission.

The official said if somebody arrives in the country for any religious propaganda assignment they should first seek approval from the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Cultural and Religious Affairs and Ministry of Defence before applying for relevant religious category visa from the Department of Immigration and Emigration well in advance.

The pre-publicity of the Matakal blessing festival had stirred much tension among a number of Hindu religious groups in the North that had notified the immigration department and area police.

The official said this kind of unapproved prayer meetings could create religious disharmony in an area or a country and the strict visa procedures had been set in place as a result.

Last March famous Tamil Nadu based Evangelist Paul Dhinakaran and family that had arrived on a blessing festival in Jaffna were sent back by the immigration officials following strong protest by Hindus in the area.

The immigration officials took the passports of the two Indian pastors into custody on Wednesday and ordered them to return to Colombo with immediate effect, which was adhered to by the latter. They were to be removed from the country shortly after.