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Visas of three delegates to top law confab here revoked
View(s):A top law conference to be held coinciding with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) suffered a set back yesterday after the Government revoked the visas of three of the foreign delegates. The Bar Association of Sr Lanka in collaboration with the International Bar Association (IBA) of which the BASL is a member, was organising a seminar on “Commonwealth values and role of the legal profession” to be held on Wednesday.
This seminar was to be addressed by Ms. Gabriela Knaul UN Rapporteur for Judges and Lawyers, first ever Special Rapporteur for Judges and Lawyers Dato Param Cumaraswamy and Alex Wilks a senior representative of the IBA among other legal luminaries from Sri Lanka.
The Bar Association said the visas were applied for in August by the Secretary, Bar Association of Sri Lanka and accordingly visas were granted to the three of them. All three visas were granted with the travel purpose stated as, ‘Conference, workshops and seminars’.
However, the External Affairs Ministry on Friday took up the position that visas were not issued to the delegates as the ‘due process’ of obtaining concurrence of the Ministry of External Affairs with regard to hosting of seminars/conferences with international participation was not followed.
The External Affairs Ministry claimed that as the seminar was scheduled to be held during the CHOGM, all the required resources will be fully utilised, resulting in practical difficulties in the conduct of any events with international participation, particularly with regard to the security and logistical aspects which would entail road closures, non-availability of hotels and accommodation facilities etc.
In a statement the Bar Association said “It appears that the Ministry of External Affairs is acting with miscomprehension of facts on the grant of visas which is a matter within the Controller of immigration and not the Ministry of External Affairs. As per the communique issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, it appears that the Ministry is unaware that the three visas have been granted.
“We have not requested for any assistance from the Ministry either in the form of logistics or accommodation. We have made all arrangements to go ahead with the seminar at a time the topic of discussion is most relevant to Sri Lanka,” the statement said.