The Sri Lanka visa debacle…. How to break what is working well!! – By Aubrey Joachim
Social media is a wonderful thing. Within a few hours the entire world knows what is happening in any area of interest. Of course as diaspora living in all parts of the globe, Sri Lankans are always interested in what is happening in the land of their birth – the good, the bad and the ugly. There is always the ‘ugly’ – thanks to the politicians ruling the country. The ‘good’ – of which there should be so much that Sri Lankans at home and abroad can be proud of. And then there is the BAD. In the last few days a video clip has been circulating on all social media platforms showing a very irate young Sri Lankan at the arrivals area of Katunayake airport absolutely venting his spleen. At first one would think that he is having a go at the Sri Lankan immigration officers for their lack of efficiency. Not so. His anger and venom is animatedly directed at the ‘Visa on Arrivals’ counter which is from recently manned by an outsourced company whose staff are Indian. The Indian High Commission in Colombo has denied that it is an Indian company. However, it is common knowledge that VFS was established many years ago to handle the issuance of Indian visas. This mob has now grown into a global monolith providing visa services to many countries including countires like Australia and the UK.
For once the Sri Lankan immigration officers came off second best. They were not worse. The video appears to show hordes of people crowding at the Visa on Arrival counter and as the irate man claims people had been lining up for over 2 hours. To add insult to injury the applicants are charged a fee above the SL government’s visa fee. The total visa fee must surely make a Sri Lanka visit visa one of the most expensive in the world!
Leaving aside the Katunayaka end, the online pre-arrival visa application site also has a new landing page which boldly and brazenly flaunts the VFS logo on the left side of the mast and the Sri Lanka government logo on the other side. It claims to be the ‘only authorized website for the department of Immigration and Emigration of the Government of Sri Lanka operated exclusively by IVS-GBS and VFS Global’. Besides the fee for the visa – which is undisclosed – a processing fee of USD18.50 is charged. A cursory visit to the site indicates a convoluted process. This contrasts with what was until mid-April the Sri Lanka Government’s online process which was extremely easy to use with the visa – in most cases granted in a matter of minutes. The chances are that with the new VFS system the visa issuance is likely to take days. An indication of this is the availability of a ‘tracking process’ and also a Help Line. The recent experience of an applicant calling the VFS help line does not augur well – at least a 2-hour wait having to touch the screen at least every minute to keep the call active. The call goes to a call centre in India!! For an organisation that the Indian HC claims is not Indian, it employs mostly Indian staff globally. Strange.
So what has brought about this change so swiftly with no prior warning? Everyone is at a loss to understand. The previously existing system and process was working perfectly. In this day and age of AI and cloud computing a visa issuance process must be the easiest to automate. Today, no human is going through every application. AI does it – just like job applications. If so, and assuming the system and process needed to be upgraded are there not the expert Sri Lankan IT and data scientist skills to get the job done? Further, if a transformation is warranted the expectation would be a better and easier process, which is not what it seems.
Such a major change in an extremely delicate area such as entry visas should have required major deliberations across many stakeholders – most importantly the tourism sector right down from the Minister. Tourism is at this point, and going into the future a major revenue source especially with Sri Lanka needing to tide over the financial crisis and desperate to attract every tourist. Did it not occur to the decision makers that this shift is likely to have a major impact on forecast tourist arrivals? On the other hand, with forecast tourist numbers being in the multi-millions, it certainly was a tempting opportunity for a lucrative third-party outsourcing deal to be awarded. In addition, were Sri Lanka’s foreign missions contacted to ascertain the impact such a move would have on tourism marketing or even business investment? It is likely that these missions will be inundated with inquiries and complaints with little they could do to assist.
A country like Sri Lanka must welcome with open arms and with ease of entry as many visitors wanting to enjoy the beauty of the country and contribute towards its economic revival. It cannot afford to be choosy with such visitors. On the one hand it is spending on showcasing the country to the rest of the world and attracting visitors to spend their dollars. Placing hurdles in the way of such an audience is counter-productive at best and suicidal at worst.
This visa debacle is the latest in the recent spate of ill-thought-out decisions and in the same category of the organic fertilizer fiasco. It would be good for those responsible to ponder the saying ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. The same cannot be said of the system running the country!
The author is Sri Lankan born, lived in Dubai and London has been in Australia for over 30 years.
