Bangladeshi human smuggling racket via SL continues Three Dhaka residents bound for Greece on fake PR cards nabbed at BIA

The prevailing political instability in Bangladesh has led to a mass exodus of its citizens to Europe and other Western countries

The airline staff who had felt suspicious about their permanent resident cards to Greece had handed them over to the DIE officials

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana

The Bangladeshi human smuggling racket operating via Dhaka, Chennai, Colombo and European destinations is continuing as Sri Lankan immigration officials arrested three Dhaka residents attempting to leave for Greece with fake PR cards at the airport.

The Daily Mirror last week exposed a human smuggling scam involving Bangladeshi nationals that are being sent to European countries via Sri Lanka, for work or resident visas with forged documents.

The prevailing political instability in Bangladesh has led to a mass exodus of its citizens to Europe and other Western countries via neighbouring countries like India, Sri Lanka and the Middle East with fake travel documents obtained by paying millions of Bangladeshi Taka or Sri Lanka or Indian Rupees.

The officials of the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) at the Departure Terminal of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) were alerted by the Gulf Air staff of three Bangladeshi male passengers who had checked into their flight bound for Bahrain on Sunday evening.

The foreign passengers had tried to board Gulf Air flight 145 to Bahrain via Male but the airline staff who had felt suspicious about their permanent resident cards to Greece had handed them over to the DIE officials.

A senior immigration official told the Daily Mirror the three passengers had been referred to the Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) of the department’s Investigation Division, where their travel documents were examined through scanners to be found fake.

Preliminary inquiries revealed that the Bangladesh nationals had arrived in Sri Lanka last Monday from Dhaka via Chennai and had remained at a lodge in Katunayake near the airport.

When questioned, the passengers had told the officials that they had received their Greek permanent residence cards from a person in Italy and were migrating for employment in Athens.

Following the initial inquiries the DIE officials handed the three foreigners to the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) unit at the BIA yesterday for further investigations.