News
Passport to hell
View(s):By Kasun Warakapitiya
Thirty-year-old Kithasamy Indrani, a resident of Imaduwa, Galle had been waiting in a queue outside the Department of Immigration and Emigration for two days, hoping to get a passport so she could fly to Kuwait for employment as a domestic houseworker. Indrani, a widow and mother of two young children, sees no way out of her financial predicament except by securing a job in a foreign land.
But getting a travel document to go overseas has become a nightmare.
Kithasamy Indrani
Suraj Wijesinghe
“I have been standing in a queue for two days now,” Indrani said when the Sunday Times spoke to her on Thursday. She had arrived around 6.30 a.m. on Tuesday at the passport office, leaving her 13-year-old and 8-year-old daughters at her mother’s place in Deniyaya.
“I am working in an estate. After the death of my husband, I found it difficult to economically sustain my family. I want the best for my children. That is why I enlisted in a foreign agency and am planning to fly to Kuwait as household help,” she said.
She has had to mortgage the television set to travel to Colombo by bus, hoping to return the same day, but with the delay in getting the passport and having to spend on food and the use of a washroom, she is running out of money.
Indrani spent the night on the road and had to use the washrooms of nearby houses as there were no such facilities available. The charge for using a washroom was Rs. 20, with several house owners in the neighbourhood allowing those languishing in queues to use their washrooms at a cost. Some waiting in the queue said they paid up to Rs. 200 to use a washroom.
For the past three weeks, a shortage of passports has led to long queues outside the Immigration Department in Battaramulla with people, coming from different parts of the country.
The Department has restricted the number of passports issued daily to 750, while regional offices of the Department issue only 25 copies. This has resulted in many from outstations flocking to the head office.
Tissa Gamlath
Standing in the sun and rain, tempers were running high, and arguments and alterations were breaking out among the exhausted crowd, with some calling out to someone in authority to address the issue urgently.
P.S. Kaluarachchi (43) a resident of Katunayake who obtained his passport after waiting three days in the queue was furious over the inconvenience he faced. He said a state service should be much more organised than this.
“Look at the queues. People are burning in the scorching sun. Why can’t they at least set up some tents for these people waiting outside?”
In addition, unscrupulous organised groups were making a buck by helping some to move up in the lines.
Mr. Kaluarachchi said that the government charges Rs 20,000 for the one day passport service and Rs. 10,000 for the normal service. But in spite of that, the service was dismal.
P.S. Kaluarachchi
A lack of waiting areas for the public is a major issue, with people forced to take refuge wherever they can because, after taking a token, they have to wait for at least two days for their turn to hand in their applications. Some who came from outstation areas find it difficult to make another trip back home and return as they were economically drained at the end of the day.
Many of those seeking passports were doing so for employment abroad. They have got confirmation for jobs and needed to travel urgently.
Among the crowd are women with small children, some with suckling young. Some were using cardboard boxes for the young ones to sit on.
A businessman, Tissa Gamlath (62) from Kurunegala, who urgently needed to travel to Japan for a business meeting, was in the queue for the fourth time.
He explained that he had submitted documents online and had applied for the one-day service, but had been unable to do so in all three previous times.
Families with young children
“I am waiting in the queue for the fourth time. Today I will get the token, that means I have to come again to get my passport another day,” he said.
A resident of Anuradhapura, 32-year-old Suraj Wijesinghe, said that he joined the queue at 4 a.m. on Thursday.
He said he left for Colombo by train at 9.30 p.m. on Wednesday.
“My hope is to become a cook at an Indian restaurant; I have obtained the job and even got a date to be present in India. However, I am still waiting in a queue just to obtain a date to hand over my documents to get my passport made. We feel sorry for ourselves, we don’t deserve such a treatment,” he said.
A resident of Polonnaruwa, Chandana Senarath, 50, said that he is planning to wait overnight after obtaining a token in order to submit documents.
He said he was doing this on behalf of his son. “I can’t travel again to Polonnaruwa and come back tomorrow as I am scheduled to submit documents tomorrow.
“During the day, I sit around on the side of a building or pavement. I use the cardboard box I got from someone who stayed over for a couple of days. The cleaners and security personnel do not allow us to stay here at night. If it rains, I will have no place to go,” he lamented.
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