(COLOMBO) – The Sri Lankan authorities said on Friday that it had issued one million fresh passports in 2023 but only 230,000 people had migrated in the same year with the remaining in limbo.
This was revealed during the meeting of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Open and Accountable Government held in Parliament recently.
The Immigration and Emigration Controller General Harsha Ilukpitiya said that nearly one million passports had been issued in 2023, but only 23 percent of them had been used for migration purposes.
Officials with the Immigration and Emigration Department said that the obstacles to obtaining passports for pilgrims travelling to India and Nepal will be promptly removed.
The Chair of the Committee emphasized that it is the responsibility of the Immigration and Emigration Department to issue the requested passports so that the people are not inconvenienced, as it is the right of the people to get passports after paying for the same.
