Immigration nabs 21 Indian nationals operating in online marketing centre

13 March 2024 10:04 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 8 Bookmark

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Colombo, March 13 (Daily Mirror) - The Department of Immigration and Emigration took 21 young Indian nationals into custody yesterday for operating at an online marketing centre in Negombo by violating their tourist visa conditions.

The department’s investigation division officials following a preliminary inquiry had raided a rented house in Negombo, which had been converted into an office space with computers and other devices installed.

A senior immigration official told the Daily Mirror the male foreigners aged between 24 to 25 years had arrived in Sri Lanka in February and March on tourist visas.

The group had used the free-of-charge visa condition granted to a set of countries till March 31st as part of an ongoing pilot project to promote tourism.

The official however said that under the law those who visit Sri Lanka on tourist visas are prohibited to engage in any kind of paid or unpaid work.

The arrested Indian nationals had been transferred to the department’s detention centre in Welisara on the instruction of the Immigration and Emigration Controller General Harsha Illukpitiya.

Comments - 8

Patriot Wednesday, 13 March 2024 10:50 AM

Great, lets give ECTA also so that they can legally run. Thanks to our excellent president !!!

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Stupid Decision Wednesday, 13 March 2024 04:43 PM

Any one given a visa can engage in any type of online work . This is accept in all countries where they also give nomad visas to engage in online business activities. I do not understand how these restrictions apply. Every foreign national is engaged in some online activities business or otherwise. Otherwise prohibit tourists from using internet.

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Anonymous Wednesday, 13 March 2024 11:57 AM

An online marketing center? Or scam call center? India and Nigeria are sadly very famous for their scam call centers. If this is the reality then there needs to be urgent action taken by immigration and by ISPs in Sri Lanka. If Sri Lanka's IP addresses are commonly used in scams, it could affect the whole country, just like India and Nigeria are known hotspots today for internet scams. Some digital security personnel in the west will even advise the public about "someone claiming to be from Microsoft with an Indian accent".

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Jaffna Logic Wednesday, 13 March 2024 01:17 PM

I think the Army Intelligence should take over this investigation from the Immigration officials. Twenty one young Indians coming all the way to Sri Lanka to work at “ on line marketing “ centre in Negombo makes no sense at all, it looks very suspicious and sinister.

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Ahmed Wednesday, 13 March 2024 01:17 PM

this is why you should think 1 million times before you provide free visa access to a high population developing country in close proximity. imagine what would happen if sri lanka signs the economic agreement that will allow them to come and legally work in sri lanka. there are so many unemployed sri lankans already living in the country. i dont understand who is making policies in sri lanka.

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Do we want the TAFFII again? Thursday, 14 March 2024 10:30 AM

This is why TAFFII force (Task Force Against Illegal Immigrants) was established a few decades ago. This was specifically to curtail Illegal Indian Immigrants. Our ruler in 1950s 1960 were aware of this menace that emptied our limited wealth. But now who cares? Some of us had these illegal Indian Immigrants as classmate! They come so young!

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wsw Wednesday, 13 March 2024 04:17 PM

Icing on the cake, just imagine providing legal access to such perpetrators through the one sided ECTA channels with India. Connect our country through trade agreements and land bridges and watch in awe the devastating consequences we will endure.

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Looser Dr. RW Wednesday, 13 March 2024 06:36 PM

Hey hey hey stop harassing those high spending high net worth Indian tourists!

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