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Alaskan job-seekers left in the cold
Eight youth, amongst who were some who had mortgaged their houses, pawned their jewellery or borrowed money from friends and relations to pay for their ‘US visas’ were due to take off in a Singaporean Airlines flight from the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on February 23.

They had bid farewell to their kith and kin and seven of them had cleared immigration formalities where their visas had been checked. But the last person in the batch aroused suspicion leading officials to recheck the visas of all of them.

The group was the first of a batch of 79 people who had been promised employment in a ‘Sea food factory’ in Anchorage (Alaska) in the United States.They were under the impression that they had been given a two year ‘visa’ enabling them to work.

But, they were soon disillusioned as officials of the CID surrounded them, checked their visas and took them in for questioning. They were later placed in remand custody. Their dreams of having a better life were shattered.
The detection has sparked off an investigation into a major human smuggling racket for which the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs was used as the headquarters. During the week more than 10 people including Ministry officials were questioned by the CID and their statements recorded.The register maintained at the reception where visitor’s names had been entered has been taken away by the CID to establish that those people had in fact visited the Ministry.

Following the detection, a meeting on Wednesday between Minister Jeevan Kumaratunga and some other youth who were to follow in batches to the US, has further confirmed that the Ministry office at 420 Bauddhaloka Mawatha Colombo 7, close to the Kanatte junction had been used for the racket.
The Sunday Times learns that the prospective job seekers had been given a form in which they had to declare their personal details including the amounts they had paid and hand it over to a supporter of the minister identified as Bernard Silva, who operates from the Ministry office.

In turn the job seekers had been told not to talk to the media with hints that it would endanger their chances of getting back the money. They have reportedly been told by the Minister to give him a month’s time to look into the possibility of getting their money back.

However, some of them reluctantly told The Sunday Times that their main aim was getting back the money which they had paid with difficulty.
Those whose applications were being processed had paid a minimum of Rs. 300,000, but most of them had paid over Rs. 500,000.Secretary to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, S. Virittamulla denied any knowledge of the meeting which took place on Wednesday with the prospective job seekers who had paid money.

“I can certainly say that there has been no meeting with any ministry official. I am not aware of any meeting which has taken place,” he said.
He said he was unable to comment on the ongoing investigations into the matter as it could hamper the CID investigations.

The prospective job-seeking youth who heard that the first batch of their colleagues had been remanded had been shocked by the turn of events.
The eight youth were produced before the Negombo Acting Magistrate Swarna Perera on Thursday and remanded until March 23 as the CID is due to file a further report on the investigations.

Some of the others who were to follow this first batch of job-seekers were visibly shaken when they saw their colleagues being hand-cuffed and led to the Negombo Magistrates court.

Fearing they might not get back their money a few of these youth, who had been played out, described to us how they raised the money required to go across to Alaska.One of them closed up his business establishment, while another had to borrow money from his parents to obtain the visa. Another youth drawing more than Rs. 50,000 salary at a private firm had resigned from his job to travel abroad.

Another youth now in remand prison had got his parents to borrow money on monthly interest which his family would have to pay All of them had paid the money to a number of political supporters of Minister Kumaratunga. Among them are Ashoka Kothalawala and Prashantha who are in custody. The main culprit, Mr. Nihal Karunaratne is not in the country.

These youth who have been hoodwinked and robbed of their monies told us they would continue to go to the ministry until justice is done and they get back the monies due to them.

My supporters duped by Nigerians: Jeevan
Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Jeevan Kumaratunga blamed a group of Nigerians for duping his political supporters by promising them genuine visas for prospective job seekers in the US.

Mr. Kumaratunga admitted his Ministry premises was used by his political supporters to collect the money to provide employment in the US for a group of youth.

The Sunday Times investigations revealed that Mr. Kumaratunga’s political supporters who used the ministry premises for this controversial exercise had no official status. The group had no formal official recognition as a registered employment agency nor obtained any formal government clearance to send unemployed youth abroad.

The CID has been informed of this by the Ministry Secretary S. Viriththamulla in a lengthy statement. Contrary to last week’s reports one of the two men behind the alleged racket now in custody is not a member of the National Youth Service Council, but a businessman. The second suspect is however an NYSC member.

The businessman had been using a room in the Ministry premises for this human cargo racket. CID investigations have revealed that he posed as the Research and Development officer in the Ministry – a post which officially did not even exist.

“I have given permission for my supporters to carryout my political activities from my Ministry to help youth to seek jobs locally and abroad. Therefore they had collected the money to provide employment and get them the visas,” Mr. Kumaratunga said.

He said that the passports of the first batch of eight prospective job seekers had been sent to a Nigerian agent to obtain the visas and he believed that genuine visas has been obtained.

“This was done with good intention to help youth to find jobs abroad. If my supporters wanted to cheat the people they would not have charged only Rs. 800,000 to send people to the US. They would have charged much more,” Mr. Kumaratunga stressed.

Asked whether the other Sri Lankans who had paid money would be refunded, he said that they would have to await the outcome of the investigations.
He said that he would provide necessary information to the CID to carryout the investigation.

CID detectives said last night they were probing why the men behind the alleged job racket chose to seek help from a Nigerian source to obtain US visas for Sri Lankans when there is a US embassy in Colombo. They confirmed that no request has been made for visas from the US embassy in Nigeria, raising further suspicion over the credentials of those who were operating in that country. They said the assistance of both INTERPOL and the US government had been sought.

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