Sri Lankans with forged Italian resident cards nabbed at BIA

BIA, Jan 26 (Daily Mirror) - The Immigration and Emigration Department officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) searched two Sri Lankan men bound for Dubai on suspicion yesterday and found forged Italian resident visa cards in their possession.

The immigration officials stationed at the BIA departure terminal detained two males who were about to leave for Dubai last evening and handed them over to the Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) for further inquiries.

Although the passengers had genuine Sri Lankan passports the officials out of suspicion searched the men to find two other Sri Lankan passports in their baggage, which were forged along with two fake Italian resident cards.

A senior immigration official told the Daily Mirror the suspects had reportedly received the forged travel documents from an unidentified person outside the airport prior to their travel yesterday. The suspects who were aged 43 and 23 had been identified as residents of Jaffna and Puthukkudiyirrippu.

The authorities suspect whether the suspects had tried to travel to Dubai on their legitimate travel documents and then wished to proceed to Italy uaing their forged documents.

The duo had been later handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department branch at the BIA for further investigations.