Two Iranians nabbed with forged Norwegian passports

by Prabhath Withana

Immigration and Emigration Department officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport, on Saturday nabbed and deported two Iranian nationals who had tried to enter the country with forged Norwegian passports.

The two Iranian nationals had arrived in the country from Kuwait at 3.30 am Saturday.When the two passengers arrived at the immigration counter to obtain visa to enter the country, the Immigration and Emigration Officers on duty, M.M. S. N. Gunasekara and M. A. Hettiarachchi found that their passports were forged.

The officers have directed the forged passports to the Chief Immigration and Emigration Officer R. R. G. B. Ranasinghe for further investigation.

According to the Department of Immigration and Emigration, during the initial investigations the officers found the passengers’ Iranian passports with them and learned that they had obtained the forged Norwegian passports in Turkey for €10,000 through a Turkish broker.

It has been revealed that one of the Iranians is a 40-year-old musician, by profession, and the other 52-year-old Iranian is a photographer, by profession, and due to the political instability in Iran, they have tried to escape to Sweden with false documents.The Immigration Department further stated that the two Iranian nationals were sent back to the State of Kuwait at 5.28 am after preliminary investigations.