At least six persons attempting to leave the country on visit visas were detained by sleuths at the newly opened Safe Migrant Promotion Unit (SMPU) at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) last week, a senior official said yesterday.
“They were held back from boarding their scheduled flight to an Eastern European country after they failed to convince officers of their true purpose of travel.
They later conceded that they had each paid Rs. 400,000 to a human trafficker who had promised them with lucrative jobs on reaching their foreign destination”, Deputy General Manager at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) Senarath Yapa said.
He said the SMPU was commissioned on Monday and so far nearly 200 visit visa holders, mainly women, had been screened by the unit.
He said the special unit was set up following complaints from several countries that human traffickers were using the BIA owing to poor monitoring systems and a high level of corruption among errant officials.