SriLankan Airlines helps crackdown on illicit travel through BIA
View(s):SriLankan Airlines (SLA) is playing an increasingly important role in the campaign by government agencies to crack down on illicit travel through Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) with 230 persons with false travel documents being apprehended by the airline last year, the national carrier said this week.
SLA said its employees work closely with other authorities at BIA such as the Sri Lanka Police, Customs and Immigration. The airline has its own group of specially trained document checkers, who have been trained by foreign embassies in spotting fake travel documents.
In the past week there have been a series of detections made by the SriLankan security, the airline said in a media release said.
Airlines face heavy fines from foreign governments if a passenger is detected with forged visa or passport, even if such passengers have been cleared through Immigration authorities at the point of origin. Fines range up to 5,500 euros per passenger (Rs. 873,000) in some European countries.
SLA saved Rs. 130 million in fines from the 230 cases detected last year, apart from the cost of carrying the passenger back to his point of origin, cost of detention rooms at foreign airports, and investigation expenses.