COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
From the departure area there are three security entrances to the check-in area. The gate to the
right caters for passengers departing on Sri Lankan Airlines; the gate to the left is for
passengers on all other airlines and the gate in between is for staff only. The security guards
ask passengers for evidence of ticketing and will only allow persons to pass who have produced
this. Persons holding a ‗day pass‘ are not allowed into the check-in area. Immediately behind
these security checks, a sign indicates ‗Customs‘. A customs officer is often seen in the vicinity,
but it is not a permanent presence. Likewise, there are scanners for baggage but these are
rarely seen in operation.
At the check-in desks, passengers have to produce their passports to airline staff and go
through check-in procedures. Airline check-in staff routinely check the identity of the person
against the passport details, the validity of the passport, and if the passenger has the
appropriate visa for their country of destination or transit. Having checked-in, passengers then
proceed to a security gate, where they produce their passport and boarding card in order to
enter the Department of Immigration & Emigration (DIE) area. All passengers must complete a
departure card and then queue at an immigration officer‘s desk. Passengers must present their
passport, departure card and boarding pass to the immigration officer. The immigration officer
scans the details page of the passport on the DIE Border Control System database. Three
scanned images of the details page appear on the computer screen in normal light, ultra-violet
and infrared, in order to identify if the document has been forged or tampered with in any way.
Non Sri Lankans will be checked against any existing database records and officers will check
arrival endorsements in the passport. Passports belonging to all passengers i.e. Sri Lankan and
foreign nationals, are endorsed with an immigration officer‘s embarkation stamp. Once through
the immigration control, passengers proceed to the main departure lounge.
The Department of Immigration & Emigration (DIE) are notified only when a Court decides to
impound the suspect‘s passport or an arrest warrant is issued. The details of such persons
would be placed on their alert or wanted list within their database. There is no other mechanism
to ensure that the Immigration Officers are aware of such instances. Apart from these Court
powers, Immigration Officers have no power in law to prevent persons embarking. The other
method, which is rare and case specific, is that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) can inform
Immigration Officers of individuals suspected of terrorist activity and those on a wanted list.
Again the details of suspects would be put on the DIE database. Without Court sanction,
Immigration officers are powerless to put an individual in detention if they are otherwise satisfied
that they have a right to enter or live in Sri Lanka. The State Intelligence Service (SIS) has an
office adjacent to the immigration embarkation control and DIE officials can refer embarking
passengers to them if they think it necessary.
Further security checks are conducted when passengers arrive at the boarding gate. Hand
baggage and belongings, including mobile phones and shoes, are passed through a scanner.
Passengers proceed through a scanner and are frisked depending on whether the alarm is
activated. There is then a further boarding card check conducted by airline staff prior to
entering the holding lounge. On many flights with European destinations, plus some with
onward connections to Europe, North America and Australia, Airline Liaison Officers from
several overseas missions and/or trained airline document checkers make further checks on
passenger‘s passports to check their admissibility in their transit and /or destination countries.
Entry Procedures
Arriving passengers should be provided with a Department of Immigration & Emigration arrival
card by the carrying airline. Depending on which stand the aircraft has arrived at, arriving
passengers will either walk from the gate on the main pier, or be deposited by bus from outlying
252 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.