Sri Lanka secures presence in regional human smuggling watch: Immigration Chief

• The Government of New Zealand is sponsoring the officer sent to Bali
• Last year the BSU thwarted 89 attempts to leave the country with forged documents

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Sri Lanka Immigration and Emigration Department securing a  position to send an officer to function at the Regional Support Office  (RSO) of the Bali Process to watch human smuggling and migrant  trafficking is a great achievement for the country, said the Immigration  Chief Harsha Illukpitiya. 

The Controller General said since July 1 a well-trained  skilled officer of the Sri Lanka Immigration and Emigration Department is  stationed in Bali, Thailand engaging in the regional support work of  human smuggling watch.   
Illukpitiya made these remarks at a special event held to  launch the 2023 Annual Report of the department’s top investigating  body, the Border Surveillance Unit (BSU) held at the Water’s Edge with a  distinguished gathering of local and foreign law enforcement agencies.  He said the Government of New Zealand has come forward to  sponsor the Immigration Officer who was sent to Bali to share  information, study human smuggling operations and counter-facilitate  such moves in the region from Sri Lanka’s end.    

The appointed officer will assist the Regional Support  Office in observing the attempts by local human smuggling syndicates to  send youth in the human smuggling triangle of Bali, Vietnam and Myanmar  through unscrupulous methods.   

This will help to prevent major human smuggling scams like  sending dozens of youth for employment in shady IT industry occupations  operated under the insurgents in Myanmar in future.   

Controller Investigations and Operations M. G. V.  Kariyawasam said last year alone the BSU thwarted 89 attempts to  leave the country with forged documents and they are well interconnected  with law enforcement agencies like the CID and Customs, local and  international airlines, foreign immigration authorities and foreign  agencies like the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).   

The Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in  Persons and Related Transnational Crime is a non-binding, international  and multilateral forum that supports collaboration, dialogue and policy  development relating to irregular migration in the Asia-Pacific region  and beyond.   

Established in 2002, and co-chaired by the Governments of  Australia and Indonesia, the Bali Process brings together 45 Member  States and four Member Organisations, covering a wide geography ranging  across the Asia-Pacific, and reaching across to Europe, Africa and North  America.   

Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security Viyani Gunathilaka and top state officials were present at the launch.