COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
security of the returnees baggage. Two security officers appeared within minutes to oversee the
reclaim process.
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 were placed back in 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 1435hrs. 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.
The first 27 returnees allowed to proceed made their way to the baggage reclaim area
accompanied by myself or my colleague from the British High Commission. However, returnees
then began gathering in the transit area and even though they had been complaining about the
length of time the process was taking and they had been allowed to proceed, they insisted on
waiting for fellow returnees to complete the arrival process. As a result over 20 of them just
sat/stood around the main transit area until around 1800hrs
My colleague and I accompanied all of the returnees to the baggage reclaim area where we
oversaw them collect their bags. The two security personal ensured that each returnee collected
the correct bags and got them to sign to confirm receipt. One of the returnees complained that
there was money missing from his baggage, a sum of £116 in cash; although he left the
baggage reclaim area having still not searched his large laundry type bag thoroughly. None of
the other 54 returnees complained about missing baggage or items. 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.
All of the returnees were pointed in the direction of Customs and the exit. We mentioned to
several of the returnees that local media were gathered in the arrivals area and may wish to
interview/film them. Some returnees returned to the Duty Free area to purchase goods before
proceeding landside. The last of the returnees passed through Customs and into the arrivals
area at around 1830hrs.
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Second Secretary (Migration)
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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