Sri Lanka’s on-arrival visa system will continue until the court’s verdict is issued on the case filed against the visa issuance system, Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles said.
Addressing the media yesterday, Minister Alles said that 12 additional counters have been established at the Katunayake Airport for this purpose.
Stating that queues were reported at the existing counters due to several flights arriving at the same time, the minister said as a solution, 12 more counters have been set up to issue on-arrival visas.
Minister Alles revealed that due to the interim order issued by the court against visa processing company VFS Global, measures are being taken to issue on-arrival visas to tourists for 30 to 60 days.
The new visa issuance system by global visa processing service, VFS Global and its charges came under the spotlight after a local passenger had raised concerns over the process, with the video of the incident being widely circulated on social media.
A probe launched by the Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) also found that VFS Global had been picked without calling for official bids, resulting in the Department of Immigration and Emigration losing out on receiving competitive rates for visa issuance.
In July this year, three petitions were filed at the Supreme Court against Minister of Public Security Tiran Alles and the government against the VFS visa procedure. Opposition MPs Patali Champika Ranawaka, M.A. Sumanthiran, and Rauff Hakeem filed the three petitions.
The lack of a proper visa issuance system has severely inconvenienced tourists visiting Sri Lanka, with long queues regularly reported at the visa counters at the Katunayake Airport.
In a bid to resolve the issue, earlier in September, the Cabinet of Ministers authorized President Ranil Wickremesinghe to implement visa-free access for 38 countries with immediate effect.
Foreign Minister Ali Sabry announced that the government has adopted Singapore’s streamlined ‘one-chop’ approach, where a visa or a visa extension is issued with just one official stamp or seal (‘chop’) on the applicant’s passport. (Newswire)
