Lanka, Hong Kong to combat immigration frauds

COLOMBO: Senior officials of the Immigration Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region had discussions with their Sri Lankan counterparts last week to discuss ways and means of combating immigration fraud and resolving some of the grievances of bona fide Sri Lankan travellers with the imposition of the new visa procedures by the Hong Kong Immigration Authorities, a release from the Foreign Ministry said.

The Sri Lanka delegation comprised senior officials of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, the Department of Immigration and Emigration, Police and SriLankan Airlines.

The discussions were a direct outcome of Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera's visit to Hong Kong in December 2005, followed by a Sri Lankan delegation visiting Hong Kong in February this year.

The two sides reviewed with satisfaction, the progress made in resolving some of the problems with regard to restrictions on business and leisure travellers.

Consequent to the understandings at these discussions, the National Chamber of Commerce, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Joint Apparel Association Forum were recognised as apex bodies with the authority to issue recommendation letters for bona fide business travellers.

These apex bodies will be issuing recommendation letters soon as the process is formalised shortly. Business travel is to be further facilitated with the issuance of long-term multiple entry visas.

The need to facilitate the holiday travel of genuine visitors to Hong Kong, was further discussed at this meeting and several modalities were examined.

The two sides emphasised importance of co-operation between the two countries in the area of people smuggling rackets by unscrupulous agents and had discussions at length on intelligence sharing.