Illegal Indian immigrants
Posted on May 23rd, 2012
S.Senanayake
The Controller of Department of Immigration and Emigration, Mr Chulananda Perera has to be commended for bringing to public notice the problem of Indians masquerading as tourists and engaging in employment locally. Though belated one wonders why such eventuality was not for seen by the authorities when tourism was opened up in mass scale.
No wonder Indians make the highest arrivals if they embark on with such ulterior motives. Some Indian company owners areƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ conniving with these individuals for cheap labour bypassing local market.Though the recent death of an Indian with a tourist visa opened the eyes of the Immigration department,the public would want to know what additional measures the department would put in place now before dangerous proposition sets in.
I can recall an encounter that happened in a Food City store at Union Place during my holidays a couple of years ago when a young bloke approached me coyly from the interior of the store and asked me in broken English which part of India I was coming from;he admitted that he was an Indian and needed help and when declared who I was he was shaken and quietly crept back inside the stores.This is a popular country wide chain of shops and it was clear that he had been employed there as a shop hand by the employers.
What is more important than deporting the culprit is to impose harsh penalties including cancellation of licences on errant employers who violate visa rules and only such stringent rules and penalties could deter the menace.
As the influx of tourists going to rise further it is pertinent to look at measures other countries have imposed to curb the threat such as strict restriction of visa to any working individual to one year or maximum two years with the onus on the employer to replace the individual at the end with a new employee.There have to be surprise raids on Indian companies regularly by flying squads who should have authority to work without fear or favour.
The minister seems to be contented with the fact that the EPF and ETF have been paid by the company overlooking the fact it is for an illegal worker necessitating the loopholes in the system to be tightened.
Hot spots such as Kotuwa,Pitakotuwa,Kotahena,Wellawatta,the North and East should be severely scrutinised.
Education of the public is the key factor bringing the issue to public attention constantly and gaining their willing cooperation as well as a legal requirement for the coworkers and the close associates to inform the authorities with penalties when failing to notify.
Not only a telephone hot line for the public is maintained,the public with genuine information should be paid handsome incentives to run a robust system.
May 23rd, 2012 at 2:08 pm
My hats off to Fran Diaz who identified this problem first.
Deportation alone is not going to work.
Do illegal immigrants have any valuables? Did I hear a kidney robbing mafia racket “operated by” Indian illegals? They will NEVER want to come to SL again.
May 23rd, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Thank you for picking up that message, Lorenzo, and also S. Senanayake.
If GoSL does not go after this problem in earnest NOW, we hope Lankans will not be saddled in the end with a problem that they will be unable to handle.
The greatest fear is that these people who have come in as illegal migrants will join up with unsavoury groups and negative politicians for protection. In particular the TNA who will want to pad up numbers. They will take up land and shelter which is really for true born Lankans. There is a civic duty here on the part of ordinary citizens to report illegal migrants to the Police or the Armed forces.
Just how many of the ltte ‘human shield’ are illegal migrants ? How many illegal migrants came in during the ltte hold of the N&E ? How do we locate such people ?
Checking for illegal migrants is really the duty of the Dept of Immigration & Emigration. Do our tourists have a return ticket when they arrive here ? Is there a system that rings an alarm bell if the tourist has overstayed his/her visa ? Do they declare which hotel/friend’s place they will stay, with a contact phone number ? What steps can be taken to locate such illegal migrants ? What is to be done with those identified as illegal migrants ?
GoSL ought to act without fear in this matter as all the western countries do not tolerate any illegal migrants. America deported 400,000 plus in 2011 alone. The Indian govt. must understand the problem and accept back all illegal migrants.
Let us not forget that Tamil Nadu alone has 5 -10 Million Tamils of low caste/Dalit origin who want to escape from TN. While I feel sorry for these people, Sri Lanka is NOT the place to come to roost. The problem has to be sorted out in TN.
The Ferry Service from South India should be put on hold for at least 10 yrs. or scrapped altogether.
Lankans, wake up ! do not get distracted by ‘side shows’ – do the things that must be done to protect the country from within. It is useless moaning and reacting violently when various land, language, and other rights are demanded incessantly by various groups who do not seem to belong in Sri Lanka.
May 23rd, 2012 at 6:21 pm
S. Senanayake !! Did you report about the Food City guy to the authorities ????
May 24th, 2012 at 11:22 am
Food City staff details must be investigated. It is owned by the billionaire Page family, who have strong links with South India. They have the means to do bad things such as illegal immigration from India, if that is wht Mr S Senanayake is alleging.
May 26th, 2012 at 7:08 am
A related topic to illegal migration is the supply of local labor needs in Lanka. After all illegal migrants keep coming in and rooting down as cheap labor, at least for a while. How do we meet this need LOCALLY in plantations sector and in the industrial sector without any dependence on illegal migrants, esp from Tamil Nadu ?
Couldn’t local people fill the void if skills training is done and life styles Modernised, and Mechanisation of tasks introduced ? In Germany, after WWII, President Harry Truman imposed certain laws on German industry to have worker representation on the Boards of Directors (BODs/CEOs). As a result Germany has no CEOs cleaning up companies by paying themselves huge ‘bonuses’. Germany leads Europe today in economy.
Another method to ensure a healthy balance/relationship between Workers & BODs, is profit sharing with workers or issue of Company shares to workers, especially a rewards for good and honest work.
Co-operative movements also generally ensures honesty in the workplace as well as, of course, co-operation in the needs of the workplace, plus general contentment among participants.
It will be worthwhile to have less profits as the entrepreneurial share and ensure contentment in the workers. That is one way to ensure a peaceful & prosperous Sri Lanka, for all citizens.