We, the people we, the guinea-pigs
Sri Lankans are the chosen ones. The world's guinea-pigs for a British Government pilot project for the use of "Bio-Metric Data'' by finger-printing us yokels for Visa purposes.
"The fingerprints will be taken from the right and left index fingers, and will be collected electronically - no ink required. The whole process will be clean and quick, taking less than a minute" assures the British High Commission in an official press release.
It sounds like the assurance at the abattoir.

The British High Commission argues that Colombo has been selected because Colombo has the space, the procedures and the staff in place for this project. Having said that, they give another reason for it. They say they "have consulted fully with the Sri Lankan Government on this matter, and we are very grateful for their assistance.”
Finger-printing - whether done electronically, or with ink, is still a mediaeval practice associated only with convicted criminals. A convicted criminal is entitled to the nicety at least of being finger-printed at the conclusion of a trial - a fair trial or otherwise, but it is always after a trial. That was British justice introduced to the colony of Ceylon, and which continues to operate upto this date.

The British justice of the present day is to presume all persons guilty until proven innocent, and to finger-print all applicants before being issued an Entry Permit. After the "9/11" terrorist attacks on the US, all types of security methods were tried on all incoming persons to the country. This included hi-tech methods such as taking imprints taken through the iris of the eye. Alarmist as it was, there was no discriminatory use of it.

This bio-metric battery to be tested singularly on Sri Lankans has nothing to do with terrorism either - it is being rationalized on the grounds that this is to do with bogus asylum-seeking in the UK. This is as if to say all British visitors must be finger-printed because there are a few British paedophiles here.

As far as we know, a very large percentage of bogus Visas issued from the British High Commission here in Colombo have been the result of reeking bribery and corruption by its own mission staff. We have reported this before without contradiction. We don't support bogus asylum-seekers. But curiously, the answer that the British have found to combat blatant malpractice by its own men and women has been to finger-print Sri Lankans.

The fact that the Government of Sri Lanka has "fully supported" this guinea-pig pilot project is a woeful disgrace on its own leaders - the President, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister. They have disgracefully "fully supported" to become leaders of a country of rogue-citizens.

They should either hang down their heads in shame for permitting this calumny without resisting it - or go stand in the queue and get themselves finger-printed electronically when they want to visit Britain.

As for the Sri Lankan public, it's up to them - if they want to get themselves humiliated in this way, especially because this is clearly the beginning of a first world practice of treating third world citizens: preach human rights to them and be signatories to international covenants on the fundamental freedoms of mankind - such as the freedom of movement, but treat them like branded cattle. Not done, old chap, what?

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