An allegation by Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Mujibur Rahman that an unnamed former Sri Lankan Parliamentarian had been detained and questioned by immigration authorities in the United Kingdom after his new Sri Lankan passport could allegedly not be properly read has brought the quality of the country’s new passports under fresh scrutiny.
Raising the issue in Parliament, Rahman claimed that British immigration officials had experienced difficulties reading the passport, prompting suspicion that the document could be fraudulent.
He also raised broader concerns over the physical quality of the new passport, alleging that immigration stamps were bleeding through to the opposite side of pages and claiming that quality-related issues had resulted in Sri Lankan travellers encountering difficulties in some countries.
Rahman further questioned why the number of pages had been reduced from 64 to 48 while the Rs. 6,000 issuance fee remained unchanged. He also claimed that the new passports did not contain observation or extension pages available in the previous version.
However, the Department of Immigration and Emigration has strongly rejected claims of a systemic quality problem, maintaining that more than 1.2 million new passports had been issued since late 2024 without a formal complaint being received from a foreign government authority or passport holder.
The competing claims have shifted attention from the shortages and procurement disputes that have dominated Sri Lanka’s passport issue over the past two years to the quality and international readability of the passports currently in circulation.
‘No official complaint’
Immigration and Emigration Controller General Chaminda Pathiraja rejected the allegations concerning the quality of the new passports.
“We have been issuing new passports since the end of 2024. No government authority has lodged a complaint or made an inquiry about the quality of Sri Lankan passports,” Pathiraja told The Sunday Morning. “We have already issued over 1.2 million passports,” he added.
According to Pathiraja, if there were a widespread defect affecting the international use of the passport, the department would reasonably have expected complaints from at least some foreign immigration authorities, considering the number already in circulation.
He cautioned against concluding that the passport was of poor quality based solely on isolated incidents or claims appearing on social media.
Pathiraja also pointed to the international standing of the supplier. “Thales is the supplier and is an international company which supplies passports to other countries as well. Therefore, there cannot be such an issue,” he said.
Asked whether quality checks had been carried out, Pathiraja said that compliance with quality requirements was necessary before the tender was awarded. He added that if the department received a formal complaint from a foreign government authority, the particular passport concerned could be subjected to further technical examination.
The alleged UK incident remains central to the controversy. While Rahman has claimed that the former Parliamentarian was questioned because the passport could not be properly read, there has so far been no publicly disclosed finding by British authorities that Sri Lanka’s passport series suffers from a systemic technical defect.
What does ICAO require?
International passport quality is not determined simply by the thickness of its pages, their appearance, or the number contained in a booklet.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) sets international specifications for machine-readable travel documents through ICAO Doc 9303. The standards are intended to ensure that passports issued by one state can be reliably read, inspected, and processed at international borders.
One of the most important components is the Machine-Readable Zone (MRZ) – the standardised lines of characters at the bottom of a passport’s biographical data page. The MRZ contains essential information concerning the document and its holder in a format designed for machine processing. ICAO specifications therefore cover its layout, positioning, and readability.
The standards also extend to document construction and security, protection of personal information, and measures against tampering and fraudulent alteration. For electronic passports, additional specifications govern the electronic chip, biometric information, and mechanisms through which electronically stored data can be authenticated.
The key principle is international interoperability: a passport issued in Sri Lanka must be capable of being reliably processed by compatible border control systems elsewhere.
However, an individual passport failing to scan does not necessarily mean that the entire passport series fails ICAO standards. A scanning failure could arise from the individual document, damage sustained during use, the inspection equipment, or a problem affecting the machine-readable information. Determining the cause requires examination of the particular passport.
At present, there is no publicly available determination from the ICAO declaring Sri Lanka’s current passport series non-compliant with Doc 9303.
Physical quality also under scrutiny
Rahman’s allegation that immigration stamps bleed through the passport pages has raised a separate question over physical quality. A passport is expected to withstand repeated handling, scanning, and stamping throughout its period of validity, while being used under varying climatic conditions.
Security travel documents can incorporate specialised substrates, security inks, fibres, threads, watermarks, and other anti-counterfeiting mechanisms. However, the fact that ink can be seen from the reverse side of a page does not by itself establish an ICAO violation.
A technical assessment would have to determine whether the material satisfies the required specifications and whether ink penetration affects information, security features, or the practical use of the document.
The allegation nevertheless raises questions over the physical performance of the passport, particularly if similar issues are reported across multiple booklets.
Furthermore, the reduction from 64 to 48 pages has become another element of the controversy. Rahman has questioned why passport holders continue to pay Rs. 6,000 despite receiving a booklet with 16 fewer pages.
For frequent travellers, fewer pages could have practical implications, particularly where visas and physical immigration stamps consume substantial space.
However, page count should be distinguished from ICAO compliance. Countries issue passports with different numbers of pages, and a 48-page passport is not automatically technically inferior to a 64-page document.
The reduction therefore raises questions primarily about functionality and value for money, rather than by itself establishing that the passport is internationally substandard.
A passport introduced amid crisis
The present controversy comes after nearly two years of difficulties surrounding Sri Lanka’s passport system. In 2024, the country faced a severe shortage of passport booklets as existing stocks dwindled while the planned transition to e-passports failed to proceed on schedule. The shortage resulted in queues, delays, and restrictions on issuance.
Against this backdrop, the Government moved to procure 750,000 machine-readable passports from Thales DIS Finland Oy as an interim measure. The procurement itself became controversial and was challenged through litigation, while the wider e-passport project continued to face delays.
The new P series passport, containing 48 pages, began entering circulation towards the end of 2024. The difficulties continued into 2026, when the procurement of the personalisation system and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) required for the planned e-passports ran into further controversy.
The procurement was intended to provide the technological infrastructure necessary to personalise and authenticate the electronic passports but attracted challenges from unsuccessful bidders.
In May this year, the Cabinet directed the Department of Immigration and Emigration to terminate the e-passport personalisation procurement, further delaying the country’s transition to electronic passports. The cancelled procurement covered the issuance system and PKI components required for the personalisation of approximately 3.15 million e-passports.
The Government is now preparing to launch a fresh procurement process while continuing to issue the existing P series machine-readable passports. The passport currently under scrutiny was therefore introduced as an interim response to an immediate supply shortage and remains in use while Sri Lanka’s intended transition to e-passports continues to face procurement and implementation delays.
Minister denies quality problem
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala, when contacted by The Sunday Morning, also rejected claims that there was a general quality problem with the passports.
Wijepala said several issues that had previously been raised had been corrected and maintained that there had so far been no formal complaint concerning the quality of Sri Lankan passports. The Minister also confirmed that the Government was preparing another tender connected to the introduction of e-passports.
According to Wijepala, the new tender is expected to be floated within the next few weeks, following the cancellation of the previous procurement.
The initial procurement had contemplated five million passports. However, a quantity of passport booklets intended for the e-passport programme has already been procured, with the remaining requirement expected to be addressed through the fresh tender.
Sri Lanka’s transition to e-passports has therefore still not been completed despite years of planning and procurement.
Why e-passports matter
An e-passport is more than a conventional passport with a chip added to it.
The electronic chip can store information associated with the document and its holder, while digital security mechanisms allow foreign authorities to verify that the information originates from the legitimate issuing authority and has not been altered. This requires secure personalisation systems and PKI.
The ICAO also operates the Public Key Directory (PKD) to support the international authentication of electronic passports. A country therefore requires an entire technological system – not simply chip-enabled passport booklets – to operate an internationally interoperable e-passport programme.
The system encompasses the secure personalisation of individual passports, electronic certificates, and cryptographic keys; the protection of stored information; and the ability of authorised border authorities to authenticate the electronic document.
This has been one of the complications surrounding Sri Lanka’s transition, with the procurement of the personalisation and PKI components facing delays and the previous process ultimately being cancelled.
Regional passport practices
Sri Lanka’s continuing use of a conventional machine-readable passport comes as several countries in the region have introduced or are developing e-passports incorporating electronic authentication and biometric technology.
Bangladesh operates an e-passport programme developed with German identity solutions company Veridos, incorporating biometric enrolment, passport personalisation, PKI, and electronic border control infrastructure.
India has been developing domestic e-passport production capacity through the India Security Press in Nashik. Its e-passport programme also provides for conformity and interoperability testing against applicable ICAO requirements.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has introduced e-passports containing electronic chips with biographical and biometric information and digital signature technology. Nepal has also moved to e-passports, with passport supply and personalisation involving European identity document providers.
The systems and procurement arrangements differ from country to country, while the ICAO does not rank passports according to their physical quality or manufacturer. Instead, ICAO specifications establish common technical requirements intended to ensure that travel documents can be reliably read and processed internationally.
In Sri Lanka, meanwhile, the Government continues to issue the P series machine-readable passport while preparing a fresh procurement connected to the introduction of e-passports.
With questions now being raised over the current passport, attention has also turned to the quality assurance process applied to the documents already in circulation, including the ICAO specifications incorporated into the procurement, durability and machine-readability testing, independent verification, and whether passport batches are subjected to testing following delivery.