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Illicit
foreigners stealing jobs here A new problem
is emerging for Sri Lanka- an increasing number of foreigners are
illegally overstaying their visas and going into jobs here or are
using Sri Lanka as a transit point to smuggle themselves to other
countries making use of liberal or lenient laws here. The Department
of Immigration and Emigration has got wind of this and has launched
a crackdown. As part of it more than 50 Indians over-staying their
visas and working mainly in Colombo jewellery shops have been tracked
down, and remanded, an Immigration official said. Assistant Controller
C .A. Fonseka said the illicit immigrants mainly from India, Pakistan
and China were known to be holed up in areas like Colombo, Negombo
and the South. Some of the
Indians had overstayed for as long as two years working as gold
craftsmen at jewellery shops in Borella and Grandpass. One of the
immigrants revealed that most of them came as tourists who do not
require a visa if they are staying only for a month. But most of
them overstay with the jewellery shop jobs giving them a tidy income
of about Rs. 10,000 a month- almost double what they would get in
India. Local Nattamis
claim at least 200 illicit immigrants from India are in the trade
here, reducing the prospects and earnings of the local labourers.The
Chinese are playing a different game. Police said Chinese health
centres or massage parlours, often a cover for prostitution were
allowed to recruit a certain number of Chinese and that accounted
for the large number coming here, some of them with forged passports,
apparently to avoid detection of their regular comings and goings. Police claim
they are cracking down on these massaga parlour brothels and arresting
the illicit immigrants but residents in many areas of Colombo say
such dubious parlours appear to be carrying on regardless. Last month
Negombo police pounced on four Chinese who were working in an alleged
brothel. They were given bail and went missing after that. A resident
of the area said such Chinese "Medical Centres" had become
so notorious that the people feared it was unsafe to even leave
their children at home. CID investigations
have revealed that some foreigners come here for about a week, get
visas and leave for other countries. In one such
case four Malaysians were arrested at the Airport and they reportedly
confessed they were trying to use Sri Lanka as a transit point to
go elsewhere.. In Gampaha
41 Pakistanis were arrested recently on a tip-off and they were
found to be waiting to go on one of those illicit immigrant boats
to Italy. They were however hauled before court on charges of possessing
forged passports. Since the passports were found to be genuine the
Pakistanis were discharged. And what happened after that is not
officially on record. Mr. Fonseka said they had no co-ordinated plan other than acting on tip-offs. Officials said tighter regulations like strict computerised monitoring of arrivals and departures would be necessary to tackle the problem.
The 32 year
old Pradeep Harsha Wijeratne had used the name of 50 year old Tan
Ai Choo to register the business. Investigators alleged that Mr.
Wijeratne had employed four other illegal emigrants from Sri Lanka
in his business. Mr. Wijeratne was jailed for eleven and a half months while Ms. Tan has been jailed for seven months. It is alleged that the woman was homeless and surviving in a corridor of Mr. Wijeratne's company before he took her in and used her name in the business.
"The UNP
has been willing to work together with the President even before
she made her offer. After the 2001
elections it was very clear that for the executive and the legislature
to function smoothly that some sort of consensus was needed and
the Prime Minister was committed to this anyhow," Mr. Jayasuriya
said in response to the President's address to the nation on Thursday. He said the
UNP had recognised that the main two parties had to work in cohabitation
and have national policies on certain issues. He welcomed
the President's views on democratization and economic reforms, which
he said were also the policies of the UNP. Meanwhile,
some members of both the UNF and the PA are pushing for a common
agenda on a series of issues including the peace process. Former PA minister
John Seneviratne who has been working towards improving co-operation
between the PA and the UNF said they were keenly awaiting a positive
response from the government to the President's offer. He said the
two parties must come together in working out a common programme
for peace and economic development. Lands Minister
Rajitha Senaratne who has expressed willingness to meet the President
to defuse tension said he had briefed the Prime Minister on talks
he was having with some PA frontliners. He said he
was in touch with Anura Bandaranaike and other PA seniors to foster
unity. Foreign Minister
Tyronne Fernando said the President's offer was a good sign and
she should be absorbed into the peace process. But The Sunday
Times learns that Minister S.B. Dissanayake and UNP Chairman Malik
Samarawickrama are among those who have told the leadership to be
cautious about the President's offer. UNP General
Secretary Senerath Kapukotuwa also said the party needed to be cautious.
He said that though the President's offer was encouraging, the party had noted an inconsistency in her approach.
Police said
many drivers and riders on the roads of Jaffna didn't have proper
licences or valid documents and now with the rule of law returning,
they faced problems when issuing police reports for vehicles involved
in accidents. Motorist also
face problems when trying to obtain insurance claims. A senior police
officer said that from next year, they would be strictly enforcing
the law and imposing spot fines. He said one of the main obstacles
that motorists faced to obtain documents was there was no full time
motor examiner for Jaffna. He said the
motor examiner in Vavuniya worked for both Jaffna and Mannar districts
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