By Rear Admiral Y. N. Jayarathne (Retd.)
The launch of the book Labour Migrants from South Asia: Issues and Concerns (Consortium of South Asian Think Tanks: COSATT), on November 12, 2024, in Colombo, Sri Lanka got me thinking more about the subject, as the discussions during the ceremony highlighted various concerns on the question of border management of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka inaugurated an Integrated Border Management System in 2019, and the writer, as the Director General Operations at the Naval Headquarters, was well conversant with the intention and the concept, as well as how it came to be implemented.
The Navy had a team of personnel deputed to the implementation course, as it foresaw the need and supported the initiation plan. The selected team for this task was quite familiar with personnel profiling and database management.
The plan was to have a net-based system where each citizen and visitor to the island nation would be registered, their profiles verified, and persons of interests tracked, in order to enforce a robust integrated system for global and regional acceptance.
This became a concern after the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, investigations in relation to which revealed how hate-mongers from neighboring countries apparently had visited at their will to engage with the communities of interests in this island nation.
All these developments made border control mechanisms relevant. Yet the mechanism operative at the time was woefully inadequate. It would typically note these visiting foreigners until they engaged in local society. Subsequently, intelligence networks on the ground would pick up and start tracing the elements.
India remained much ahead of anyone in the region on this front, as they were monitoring and alerting us of various developments. It even had a web based open-source website giving details of persons arrested for ISIS related activities, and details of Sri Lankan nationals who were involved with the Easter Sunday bombing, when these Sri Lankan nationals engaged with their contacts in the state of Kerala.
Labor migrants from South Asia are in a vulnerable position in their host countries due to economic and financial hardships. Depending on their economic status, they remain exposed to extremist exploitation under the promise of financial benefits.
We have seen these developments earlier and in today’s geopolitical landscape, they are going to continue, if not increase. A good example would be the recent Sri Lanka’s incident of planned attacks on Israelis at Arugam Bay.
Sri Lanka will have to confront these developments as those who want to seek vengeance for Gaza will be looking at soft spots. They would not be targeting the US or Europe as these countries have strong, proven systems of monitoring and tracking. We do not. Extremists, hailing from Wahhabism or any fundamentalist creed, or ethnic based ideologies like Tamil Eelam, are likely to target vulnerable migrants who have sought economic prosperity in the Gulf or any other country of opportunity.
People have migrated for centuries. Migration is necessary to the development of societies and communities. It brings new thinking, new managerial and behavioral aspects to the benefit of all. Historical developments have proved that societies have always benefitted through migration. When Dubai was at the peak of its development phase in the mid-1980s, many Sri Lankan migrant workers toiled hard to turn it into what it is today.
Sri Lankan society also benefited, as migrant labor used their hard-earned money for a better education for their children and their lifestyle, the latter in terms of improved housing, wealth management, and investments. These contributed to national development too, as remittances help governments invest in projects of national importance.
These open employment and labor opportunities will always push up migration and tourism. This has compelled the Sri Lankan government to invest in a robust Border Management System that meets the national imperative of securing safety.
The Visa-on-arrival, increased tourism options, and the shortage of labor in Sri Lanka are several other factors that demand a solid Border Management. This goes beyond mere immigration laws. They need an integrated and interlinked approach.
The “Imuga” system, adopted in the Maldives, is a good example of such an approach. The system requires current photo identification, verified at counters. It is a fool-proof method that helps authorities stay updated about various persons of interests.
The system itself indicates in and out figures, making border management more effective even with fewer staff. Similar systems are used in the region, and not all have remained connected within a country’s other digital networks, such as hotels, car rentals, and police networks. Obviously, the need of the hour is to have a network enabled system where all visitors are tracked and counted to ensure that Sri Lanka’s border management is credible and dependable, not only for the island’s but also the regional needs.
For obvious reasons, separatist ideology and religious extremism remain high priorities. In relation to these concerns, an Integrated Border Management system would be a valuable tool in preventing and deterring the potential revival of such ideologies in this country. A very basic example would be an advocate of separatism domiciled in a foreign country visiting Sri Lanka pretending to be a tourist and then engaging in anti-social or intended subversive actions before his departure.
In the absence of an Integrated Border Management such movement remains unnoticed until it is too late. The reasons why countries invest in an efficient Border Risk Assessment Centre (BRAC) can never be quantified in financial terms. After all, economic development usually is the first casualty when the country becomes unsafe and unsecure.
Efficient border control mechanisms address not only mere security threats, but also much wider biosecurity risks. In the aftermath of the Arugam Bay incident involving Israel “tourists”, popular media openly questioned the presence of these people at various archaeological sites. It must be noted that even so-called “hate speakers” prior to the Easter Sunday attack in 2019 visited the country as tourists!
In the context of the next five years, when the island nation will likely start repaying its debt, the Sri Lankan State cannot afford to have a conflict situation leading to the downfall of the economy. When tourism earnings are on the rise and continue to be our main source due to Sri Lanka becoming a “safe-choice destination” vis-a-vis an increasingly conflict-ridden world, Sri Lanka will have to ensure that it remains safe and inclusive for all.
To this end, visitors who parade themselves as tourists and engage in other activities will have to be strictly monitored. Such screening and monitoring systems, once in place, will prove to be a powerful deterrent, including when all citizens and visitors realize they are being profiled and subject to the rule of law of the country.
An environment of safety and security is a must for the next five years. Our industrial base will need to flourish, the tourism trade must continue to earn money, and internal political stability should remain in place for national harmony. This makes an Integrated Border Management System more important than ever to be revived, invested in, and successfully implemented in line with the government’s initiatives of digitization, integration, and a holistic whole-community approach.
Rear Admiral Y. N. Jayarathna (Retd) was the Chief of Staff and Chief Hydrographer of the Sri Lanka Navy and Joint Chief Hydrographer to the Sri Lankan Government. On retirement his services have been secured by the United Nations as an International Consultant for Undersea Cables. He is presently engaged in a consultancy role on maritime matters on a freelance basis. He can be reached at ynjayarathna@hotmail.com.
Factum is an Asia-Pacific-focused think tank on International Relations, Tech Cooperation, and Strategic Communications accessible via www.factum.lk.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the organization’s.
