An Iranian national has been arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake this morning (16) for attempting to enter Sri Lanka using a stolen Italian passport. 

The 40-year-old Iranian had arrived in the island onboard Air Arabia flight G9-502 from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, at 4:25 a.m. today.

Upon arrival, the man had presented an Italian passport to immigration officers to obtain an on-arrival visa. However, when the passport details were checked against Interpol’s database of lost and stolen passports, it has been flagged as being reported stolen. 

Immigration authorities had immediately referred the case to the National Central Bureau of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), where the stolen status of the passport was confirmed.

While investigations were underway, the Iranian national had attempted to re-enter the country using his original Iranian passport. He had presented this at another immigration window, but his actions were noticed, and was brought to the attention of the officers handling his case.

The Italian passport had been forwarded to the Immigration Department’s Border Control Unit for further technical checks, which corroborated that the document was indeed flagged as stolen. During the investigation, officials had uncovered that the Iranian national had planned to use Sri Lanka as a transit point en route to Europe.

However, the officials had taken steps to deport him back to Sharjah on the same flight he had arrived on.