Following a work-to-rule by some of the management officials on June 14 the Department of Immigration and Emigration of Sri Lanka saw a large number of applicants queued up outside the premises for various services on Monday (June 18). Though the department was closed on Friday, for the Ramazan festival, the work-to-rule among the management [...]

Business Times

Pandemonium at the Department of Immigration and Emigration

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Following a work-to-rule by some of the management officials on June 14 the Department of Immigration and Emigration of Sri Lanka saw a large number of applicants queued up outside the premises for various services on Monday (June 18).

Though the department was closed on Friday, for the Ramazan festival, the work-to-rule among the management continued the following Monday, a department source told the Business Times.

An applicant who visited the department to renew his passport on Monday said ‘it was a pandemonium.’ People queued up in large numbers (more than 2,000 applicants) outside the department even before the work hours started at eight o’clock in the morning. They had come from all over the country either to obtain a new passport, renew the passport, extend the visa and some other services the department offers.

It was the first time the applicant visited the new office in Battaramulla and was surprised to see that things have not changed since the office moved from the former location in Borella. People were sitting everywhere and anywhere there was a tiny bit of space. And most of them had come to collect the passport within a day that costs Rs. 10,000 for each travel document.

Though Sri Lanka is said to be connected with modern technology, many government institutions are backward and are not willing to adopt to the technology that could make things convenient and orderly. A simple example, at the entrance two officers were sitting just to press a button and give a token to every applicant who walks in which could have been a self-service machine. The same technology is applied in most banks and public places where crowd control is managed efficiently.

After collecting the token, two other officers in another section check the required documents manually and confirm that they are in order. There was no sign that an applicant must visit the officers before the token number is called. Once the token number appears on the screen you walk into another section where all documents are collected, finger prints are taken and you make the payment at which they inform the time to collect the passport the same day.

The best part of the whole day that you spend at the department is when you come to collect the passport after around four to five hours on the first floor. Once the passport is ready you expect them to display the token number you received at the entrance on the screen, but all screens were shut down completely and on two other screens “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” movie was playing.

From around six counters, the officers started calling out names and people with the same names and surnames walking towards the counter together.

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