Blacklisted persons slip through Immigration and Emigration

By Rathindra Kuruwita 

The Department of Immigration and Emigration did not stringently enforce the law on blacklisted persons, former Minister of Law and Order Sagala Ratnayaka said yesterday, at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks.

“They had an excuse for this. They said that most of these people had common names and that they were stopping wrong people all the time.”

Ratnayaka said there had been an instance where a Maldivian arrived in Sri Lanka and committed a murder. It was later found that the person was blacklisted, he said.

“While we collaborated with the Department of Immigration & Emigration, we had no control over them. Police sent them periodical reports on the people that they wanted on blacklists but they were stringently followed,” he said.