COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
Similarly to the previous charter flights, the senior official from SIS informed me that their
officers and those from CID would carry out a joint interviews rather than separate interviews in
order to speed up the process. Once the returnees had completed their interviews with DIE,
they were escorted either to the SIS office immediately adjacent to the area where they were
seated, or they were taken to CID‘s ground floor interviewing facilities. Each returnee underwent
a further interview regarding their mode and route of travel to the UK, what they had been doing
in the UK and checks to ascertain any criminal activity previously in Sri Lanka.
On completion of the SIS/CID interviews, the returnees returned to the main seating area. As
soon as passports/travel documents were reunited with the returnees they were allowed to
proceed. The first returnee was allowed to proceed at 1445hrs. Representatives from the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) spoke individually to each returnee to hand over a
travel grant in Sri Lankan Rupees equivalent to £50, to enable the returnee to have the means
to travel to their onward address anywhere in Sri Lanka, and for overnight accommodation
where required. Each returnee provided contact details to IOM.
After the first returnee proceeded there was a steady flow of returnees completing the process.
My colleague and I accompanied all of the returnees to the baggage reclaim area where we
oversaw them collect their bags. Security personal ensured that each returnee collected the
correct bags. Several of the returnees asked for our assistance in trying to get documents
returned from UKBA. None of the returnees complained about missing baggage although one
complained that his mobile phone had not been returned to his property on leaving the
detention centre in the UK. All of the returnees were given either my business card or that of my
colleague at the British High Commission, and were advised to contact us if they had any
questions or concerns.
The returnees were pointed in the direction of Customs and the exit. Several returnees
expressed a reluctance to go through Customs and asked if we could accompany them. For
previous charter flights this had not been an issue as there were rarely Customs officers on the
control, however, several Customs officers were present and were seemingly speaking to most
arriving Sri Lankan passengers. My colleague and I both watched each returnee go through the
Customs control to ensure they were not stopped or harassed in any way.
Following the earlier question regarding the media, throughout the day I ventured into the
arrivals area outside the Customs to check for signs of cameras or reporters. None were
evident and one of the security officials told me that he had not seen any present. I relayed this
information to returnees as they were allowed to proceed. Many of the returnees returned to the
Duty Free area to purchase goods before proceeding landside.
The whole process went extremely smoothly until the last four returnees. At 1810hrs I spoke to
the Inspector of Police in CID and asked how much longer they would be. He advised me that
they were awaiting the results of checks with Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) and the
Criminal records department (CRD) and added they would all be allowed to proceed within 15
minutes. After 20 minutes I returned to CID to be told that they had all been allowed to proceed,
but had been shown directly into the baggage reclaim area and out through Customs rather
than return via the Immigration arrivals hall. We confirmed with CID paper records that they had
left, obtained their contact details from the same records, confirmed that they had collected their
baggage and on checking the entire baggage/duty free area were satisfied that they had indeed
proceeded. We subsequently located one of them landside and IOM provided him with his travel
grant. He confirmed that the other three had proceeded with him. The last of the returnees had
therefore passed through Customs and into the arrivals area at around 1830hrs.
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.
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