COLOMBO (THE ISLAND/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – A project will get underway shortly to introduce a new Sri Lankan passport with biometrics to strengthen the government’s efforts to curb malpractices by streamlining the passport issuing process.
The project was meant to prevent large scale abuse of the Sri Lankan passport was in line with joint Australian-Sri Lankan efforts to tackle illegal migration, sources said.
Responding to a query, they said that Australia was funding the project to the tune of 500 million Sri Lankan rupees (S$4.76 million), with the treasury here making available an additional 50 million Sri Lankan rupees.
The Colombo-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is spearheading the project.
