Immigration laws to be revised soon to tackle human smuggling
Sri Lanka is to revise the country’s ages-old immigration law with the aim of tackling illegal smuggling of migrants, upgrading immigration and emigration legislation and streamlining the visa procedure, a senior official said.
A draft bill has been prepared based on the recommendations of a committee made up of members from the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the office of the Attorney General and it is with the Legal Draftsmen’s Department for its finalisation, Immigration and Emigration Controller General Nimal Ranasinghe disclosed.
He made these comments during a discussion on the labour crisis organ- ised on Tuesday by the Sunday Times Business Club and held at the Kingsbury Colombo.
This draft bill will be presented in parliament this year adding that the gap analysis exercise of the department has already been completed.
It has identified several deficiencies and gaps in the present legislation and insufficiency of inter agency cooperation as main hindrance for efficient border management in Sri Lanka.
A suitable interagency coordination mechanism to provide policy and operational guidance to border control agencies has also been proposed.
The new bill provides provisions for enhanced punishments against human smugglers, but not for the illegal migrants.
Assets of those convicted of profiting from exploiting migrants will be confiscated and be subject to terms of imprisonment of up to 20 years from the existing punishment of five years, according to the draft bill. But the existing punishment for illegal migrants will remain as it is for three months.
Referring to the transformation of the Immigration Department as a profit- making and efficient institution not second any other private sector organisation in the country, Mr. Ranasinghe said that the commitment and dedication of experienced officers and public administration procedures have brought this transformation with automation.
The re-engineering process was possible due to a proper manual system being carried out over the years by the department, he pointed out.
Being a bureaucratic public institution, the department had to re-invigorate the decision- making process and identify clientele comprising all Sri Lankans and foreigners, as it is essential for the transformation, he added.
The existing working manual has been changed and the procedures simplified before the automation, he disclosed.
According to official statistics, the department clears six million passengers a year and issues passports to over 600,000 Sri Lankans a year and 50,000 a month.
The number of people moving across the border is expected to reach 10 million in 2020 from the current 6.5 million in addition to over 200 million kg of passenger goods will be crossing the border.