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Probe on issuing of DPL passports next week

28 Feb 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Public Order Minister John Amaratunga yesterday said a probe will be launched into the manner in which diplomatic passports had been issued during the previous regime to non-diplomats.

Minister Amaratunga told the Daily Mirror that he would obtain the list of individuals to whom diplomatic passports had been issued during the previous regime and check them against the regulations in circulars detailing the eligibility for a ‘light red passport’.

“From time to time, circulars have been revised and additional people had been granted diplomatic passports under varying categories. However, I will ensure that such cases will be checked to see whether they fell into the specific categories and whether the necessary requirements had been fullfilled,” he said.

The Minister also said if any individual was found to be in possession of a diplomatic passport without fulfilling the necessary requirements, measures would be taken to cancel them and take appropriate action against them.

Last year, Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam as an Opposition MP revealed in parliament that some 2,872 diplomatic passports had been issued by the Department of Immigration and Emigration to various individuals regardless of the ‘exclusivity of a list of pre-approved personalities’ during a period of nine years since 2005.

He listed out the individuals along with their passport numbers to which included housewives, photographers, merchants, cooks, designers, media secretaries and students.

Responding to these allegations however, the Department of Immigration and Emigration then said that the relevant circulars had been followed in issuing the diplomatic passports. (Lakna Paranamanna)

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Probe on issuing of DPL passports next week

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