Two Sri Lankan youths attempting to escape to Austria using forged visas, provided by a smuggler, were arrested by the officers of the Immigration and Emigration Border Control Unit at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA).
One of the individuals is a 25-year-old resident of the Kilinochchi area, while the other is a 27-year-old resident of Mullivaikkal.
They arrived at Katunayake Airport on Saturday at 7:30 a.m. on Turkish Airlines flight TK-731, intending to depart for Istanbul, Turkey.
Upon suspicion of the authenticity of the Australian visas, which were among the documents submitted to Turkish Airlines officials for aviation clearance, the two individuals were referred to the officials of the Katunayake Airport Immigration Border Inspection Unit.
Initial investigations revealed that the visas were forged. Subsequent interrogations uncovered that these documents were prepared by a broker in the Borella area of Colombo.
The arrested were handed them over to the Katunayake Airport Criminal Investigation Department for further investigations.
