COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
� ―involvement with media or NGOs
� ―lack of an ID card or other documentation.‖
25.31 In particular, in reply to the question on what procedures were in place to identify failed
asylum seekers at the airport and those who are wanted by the authorities the same
source 519 reported:
―The DIE spokesman said that DIE recorded the details of all returnees in a register
(logbook). Returnees were then referred to the Criminal Investigations Dept (CID), or
sometimes the State Intelligence Service (SIS), without any harassment. If there was a
passport, DIE could check the person‘s details on their database, but this was not
possible with an Emergency Travel Document (ETD). If there was an ID card number,
checks could be done referring to the original passport. It was possible to establish
whether a person had left the country illegally by looking at the passport as it would lack
the embarkation stamp, but this would not be possible with an ETD. ETDs were
considered full official documents issued by the Sri Lankan authorities. They were a
proof of identity and were valid to go through any checkpoints. ETDs were stamped and
returned to the returnee. The role of DIE ended when they passed returnees to CID.
―DIE had access to an alert list. This list contained information relating to court orders,
warrants of arrest, jumping bail, escaping from detention as well as information from
Interpol and the SIS computer system. The DIE computer system had its own alert
system related to the alert list but this did not indicate the exact reason for the alert.
Following an alert, DIE would refer these people to CID or SIS to establish the position.
―SIS records dated back 60 years and were being put onto computer. SIS computer
records were available at the airport to both SIS and (on request) CID officers. On the
other hand, police records were held for five years only; occasionally on computer, but
normally on paper only.‖
25.32 The FCO October 2009 report 520 also reported on whether specific factors would affect
the way an individual is treated at the airport. In particular the report recorded:
―The Superintendent Police, Criminal Investigations Department (CID) at Bandaranaike
International Airport said that if a person was suspected of being associated with LTTE,
SIS would hand them over to the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID). Sometimes
they were referred to Colombo Detection Bureau headquarters, or sometimes CID. In
such cases a detention order for 90 days could be issued.
―The senior intelligence official said that if a person had an arrest warrant outstanding
they would be arrested. If they had a previous criminal record, it would depend on what
they said at interview. SIS would probably check with the local police where they came
from: if they were wanted, they would be detained; if not, they would be released.
519 Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), Report of the FCO information gathering visit to Colombo,
Sri Lanka 23-29 August 2009, 22 October 2009 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/igcolombo-
0809.doc date accessed 6 January 2010, Executive Summary, paragraphs 1.4; 1.5; 1.6; 1.10; 1.13
520 Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), Report of the FCO information gathering visit to Colombo,
Sri Lanka 23-29 August 2009, 22 October 2009 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs09/igcolombo-
0809.doc date accessed 6 January 2010, Executive Summary, paragraphs 1.48; 1.54-1.59
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
201