By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana

Adding another to the list of recent arrests, the Department of Immigration and Emigration stopped a man who tried to leave the country with a forged Canadian visa on his Sri Lankan passport at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on Wednesday evening.

The 42-year-old male had tried to check-in to a SriLankan Airlines flight UL225 around 17.00 hours on Wednesday, when the airline staff had felt suspicious about his Canadian visa.
He was then referred to the Immigration Department special branch at the BIA Border Surveillance Unit (BSO) where the officials had found the Canadian visa pasted on his local passport was forged.

A senior Immigration official told the Daily Mirror the passenger’s Sri Lankan passport was genuine, and he had got the forged Canadian visa for Rs.4.5 million from an individual in Wattala.

The suspect had planned to first visit Dubai on a SriLankan Airlines flight and then to proceed to Canada on a different airline, the sources said.
The arrest adds up to a list of a series of attempts by over 10 individuals to leave the country for countries like Canada, Italy and Germany through illegal means of producing forged travel documents to the BIA authorities since the beginning of August.

The prevailing unfavourable economic situation had prompted many individuals to leave the country for greener pastures with forged documents, was the view of the Immigration authorities.

The arrested passenger had been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officials at the BIA for further investigations.