• Rackets involving SIM card-based registration & reserving of queue slots reported 

Sri Lanka will be bringing in new electronic passports amidst a backlog of passport applications.

“We will bring in new e-passports. We have come to an agreement to bring in 7,500,” Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles, under whose purview the Department of Immigration and Emigration comes, said at a press conference yesterday (9).  “After that, we will continue to bring e-passports.” Alles mentioned that since the new e-passport is safer than the original passport, the Government will continue to introduce it in stages. “We will bring it in stages of 50,000 and 100,000,” Alles said.

He noted however that holders of non-electronic passports will not be required to renew their passports to an e-passport until expiry.

However, Alles said that the introduction of the e-passport has resulted in several scams and unfair practices causing concern among the people. “Several persons have taken 100 subscriber identity module [SIM] cards and have registered for these e-passports,” Alles said. “Then, they sell these passports at a high price. To combat this, we introduced a queue system for registering for passports; however, people began reserving slots in the queue and charging people Rs. 20,000-25,000 for the slots.”

These comments follow reports of long queues at the passport office to obtain the e-passport, leading to reports of migrant workers being unable to seek employment abroad and students missing university dates. This is following an announcement by the Department of Immigration and Emigration announcing the use of e-passports.

Immigration and Emigration Controller General Harsha Illukpitiya said that due to the common tactic of identity forging and using fake passports to migrate, the e-passport will carry a chip detailing information about the owner, making it more secure and preventing passport fraud.