COLOMBO, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's national airline carrier, Sri Lankan Airlines, on Tuesday said it had achieved considerable success in recent times in its efforts to crack down on illegal travel through Colombo's international airport.
A statement by Sri Lankan Airlines said that many passengers had attempted to use forged or altered travel documents, often supplied by organized criminals running human trafficking rings.
"As the sole ground handling operator for all airlines that operate to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Sri Lankan plays an important role in detecting passengers with forged or altered passports, visas and boarding passes who are attempting to travel overseas," the airline said.
The airline also works closely with other authorities at BIA, including Immigration, Customs, Airport and Aviation Services and the Sri Lanka Air Force to thwart the efforts of these criminal gangs.
"In recent weeks alone, SriLankan staff detected five persons with forged passports who were attempting to board flights at BIA," the statement said.
It added the airline itself recorded a 46 percent reduction in fines for illicit travelers in 2016 in comparison with the previous year.
The airline said it is targeting zero violations in this regard but faces an uphill task due to the organized nature of the human trafficking rings that operate on a global scale.
"Illicit travelers include Sri Lankans and persons of other nationalities, who are usually attempting to travel to Europe, the Middle East, the Far East, Australia, and even the North America, are often lured by the prospect of employment in those destinations."
Many ignorant travelers are duped into paying massive sums of money to human trafficking rings who supply them with forged travel documents or documents of other people.
In addition, there are also passengers who are ignorant of necessary valid documentation, expiry dates etc. and often attempt to travel abroad without meeting the required criteria, Sri Lankan said.
