Bali Process Workshop on Immigration Intelligence Threats and Risks to Immigration borders of Sri Lanka

1. Bali Process Workshop on Immigration IntelligenceThreats and Risks to Immigration borders of Sri Lanka R.S.L.Rajapakse, Department of Immigration and Emigration Gihan Indraguptha, Ministry of External Affairs 7th-10th February, Auckland, New Zealand

2. Contents • Threats and risks to Sri Lanka’s Immigration borders Evaluation of threats by Sri Lanka Immigration • Evaluation of strengths and weaknesses to cope with threats and risks • Data collection for intelligence by Immigration • Action and responses to identified threats and risks • Future initiatives of data collection for intelligence analysis

3. Threats and Risks for Immigration borders of Sri Lanka • What is a threat? “The potential to harm national interests of Sri Lanka” - possess capability and intent • Identified threats to Sri Lankan Borders • Persons with links to terrorist organizations causing threat to National Security • Use of Sri Lanka as a transit point for people smuggling/human trafficking eg. Other South Asian nationals

4. Threats and Risks for Immigration borders of Sri Lanka • Use of Sri Lanka for international crime such as document forgeries/printing of fake currencies/credit card scams etc. eg. African nationals/ International organized criminal syndicates • Violation of Immigration law by foreign nationals who commit crimes in Sri Lanka Eg. Some nationals come to Sri Lanka for prostitution • Use Sri Lanka as a transit point for dangerous drugs • People seeking political asylum

5. Evaluation of Threats by Sri Lanka Immigration • Capability of criminals • They have links to international criminals • They have access to modern technology- print visa stickers/plastic visa cards/passports etc • Intent of Criminals • They try to provide services to their clients by organizing boats/ships to destinations, transit points/ bribe authorities etc.

6. Evaluation of Risk to Sri Lankan Borders “Risk is the degree of harm that would occur if a threat eventuated” • Identified Risks to Sri Lankan borders • Sri Lanka may becomes a human smuggling/trafficking transit point • Risk of terrorists using the same networks to cause harm to the national interests of the country. • Addiction of drugs by local community • Increase health expenditure

7. Strengths and weaknesses to cope with Threats and Risks • Strengths • Trained boarder officers • Trafficking/ Smuggling/ Document Examination/Facial recognition • Document Lab • Computerized data base and high security passport • New visa system- ETA • CCTV cameras at the airport • Weaknesses • Poor international cooperation • Language difficulties- Urdu, Arabic, Chinese etc.

8. Data Collection for intelligence by Immigration • All Deportees and Refused Entry passengers, irrespective of their citizenship, are handed over to Immigration (Primary Contact Point) • Documents receive from the airline • Preliminary investigations are done by the Immigration • Verify the passport, nationality, endorsements, verify whether departed genuinely from SL etc • If there is any doubt, suspects are handed over to the Police for further investigation • If documents are genuine and found to be a legitimate passenger or the offence has been committed in a third country and is not an offence under the I&E Act, the passenger is released

9. Problems of current system • Currently a manual ad- hoc system is in operation that makes data analysis difficult • Insufficient information to analyze information on Deportees, Refused Entry passengers • Analysis of data on log books and registers do not provide a clear picture of Deportees/Refused Entry – eg. how many from a particular country, which age group, route, final destination etc.

10. Action and responses for identified threats and risks to Sri Lankan Borders • Briefing the possible threat to other authorities • Alert the immigration officers at Entry and Exit points • Alert immigration officers of identified flights/destinations/nationalities • Maintain alert lists to identify passengers with potential risk • Deploy more officers at vulnerable points • Carryout sudden and random checks by the Border Surveillance Team at final gates • Introduction of the online visa system instead of visa on arrival • Carryout search operations within the country by the Investigation and monitoring unit

11. Future Initiatives of Data Collection for intelligence analysis • DIE intends to start formal data collection of Deported and Refused Entry passengers for the purpose of intelligence analysis • Some important information that would be collected; • Travel routes • Smuggling fees • Most common destinations • Modus operandi • Flights used for journey • Smuggler details and profiles • Profiles of smuggled migrants • Documents used Success of the project depend on the resources and manpower of the Department

12. Future Initiatives of Data Collection for intelligence analysis • The Australian DIAC provided training on immigration Intelligence in 2010 • Further 16 officers received training in 2011 • This analysis is based on the techniques of above training • Intend to store these information in a MS Excel sheet and analyze them for intelligence and decision making Only arrival data are collected at the beginning and it provides better opportunity to identify trends and intelligence

14. Thank You! rslrajapakse@yahoo.com gihan@mea.gov.lk