Question arises on national security threat, impact on tourism

May 03 - The award of contract for issuing on-arrival visas at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) to a foreign consortium including VFS Global as the key technology partner is mired in further controversy since it has been done without following due tender process, any consideration to a threat on national security and the impact on increased charges from foreign nationals on the country’s burgeoning tourism industry.

Also, the foreign company which is handling visa documentation in over 150 countries has been awarded the contract despite the local company Mobitel having developed a system to implement the programme at a lower rate and Sri Lanka Immigration handling it without any hassle at an economical rate for a dozen of years.

The Cabinet memorandum has been submitted in this regard by Public Security Minister Tiran Alles. However, the immigration authorities say they suspect some hidden agendas behind the whole issue and they are in the process of studying it in detail.

According to them, a security threat can be triggered because a foreign company will possess personal details of nationals from any country visiting Sri Lanka.

"It can trigger a threat probably since the Sri Lankan security authorities cannot fully assess the individual backgrounds of foreign nationals arriving as visitors,” an immigration officer who wished to remain anonymous said.

Also, he said the Sri Lankan immigration authorities charge only visa fees from foreign nations but after the process was outsourced, additional service charges were levied leading to on-arrival visa fees being hiked to as high as 100 dollars per visitor.

"We are not sure whether our rates will be competitive enough in that context. It will have a bearing on tourism. People might choose to travel to countries where visa rates are lower than ours,” he said.

The Government and the Ministry of Public Security came under heavy criticism yesterday for outsourcing the visa system supervised by the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) after rejecting a virtually free and well-functioning platform provided by SLT-Mobitel.

A Cabinet decision made in July 2021 approving Mobitel’s proposal submitted to the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) to revamp the existing system along with the infrastructure at a cost of $ 1.00 per Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) application to be charged from foreigners applying for ETA with zero cost to the Government.

However, the Public Security Ministry had overlooked the proposal of the local company and decided to outsource the project to GBS Technology Services and IVS Global FZCO as the prime contractor.

VFS Global is the technology partner for implementation of the new eVisa platform. From 17 April, all visitors to Sri Lanka have been subject to $ 18.5 service fee and $ 7.27 convenience fee in addition to higher visa fees.

Standard tourist visa fee was increased to $ 75 for non-SAARC countries (which means with additional fees an entry will cost over $ 100 per person) and SAARC country tourist visa fee was increased from $ 20 to $ 35. The tourism industry has already protested against the hike and additional fees.

Following the recent video which went viral showing an angered person shouting at the airport over purported discrepancies in the system, the government restored the process with Sri Lanka immigration immediately.

However, Ministry Secretary Viyani Gunatilake said there due to a technical glitch on Wednesday night there had been a backlog, and as soon as it is restored, the service would be given back to the foreign company within a week or so.