Thousands of Sri Lankan nationals work in Bangladesh illegally causing job loss for local people and revenue loss for the government, diplomatic sources have told The Independent. On-arrival visa facility for Bangladeshi citizens to Sri Lanka has also remained stopped since September 7 that prompted the Bangladesh authorities to suspend the on-arrival visa facility for Sri Lankan nationals here, they added.
The sources said sensing the negative impact on employment caused by the illegal Sri Lankan nationals, the Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo has become very selective in issuing visas for Sri Lankan nationals.
“Some 40,000 to 45,000 Sri Lankan nationals work in Bangladesh with tourist visas. This is illegal. One cannot work in Bangladesh without work permit,” a senior official of the foreign ministry said.
“At some point of time, the figure rose to 60,000,” he added.
The official also said, “As they work illegally, they don’t pay taxes causing loss to the exchequer.”
These Sri Lankan people work in schools, garment factories, travel agencies and clearing forwarding agencies, he said.
“We have now tightened our visa regime for Sri Lankan citizens,” the official said, adding, “Our people go to visit Sri Lanka contributing to the economy of that country while most of them come to Bangladesh to work here illegally. Our people may go to other countries
on tourism purpose.” To a question, he said the penalty is nominal in case anybody is found working without work permit.
“It’s bizarre. Sri Lankan citizens go to Bangladesh to work in travel agencies. Don’t we have enough capable people to run our travel agencies? I don’t mind if people go to Bangladesh to undertake employment where we have lacking. But, this
is not the case here,” said a diplomat at the Bangladesh High Commission in Colombo.
 “That’s why we are being selective nowadays in issuing visas,” he said.
Regarding the latest situation on on-arrival visa facility for Bangladeshi people, the diplomat said, “It remained stopped.”
However, he said the Sri Lankan government introduced a system named Electronic Travel Authorisation (eTA) where a traveller has to fill in a form before taking a print out of the authorisation which will be placed at the immigration of the airport for a visa.
“It is not as good as on-arrival visa, which was in place earlier,” he added.
 Following the Sri Lankan decision to stop on-arrival visas for Bangladeshis without informing Dhaka, the foreign ministry summoned the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Dhaka and asked for an explanation.
In response, the envoy said she does not know about it and she will come back to the foreign ministry after knowing what has happened.  Later, Sri Lankan deputy foreign minister described the move as a mistake and shifted the blame on the immigration chief of that country.
Necessary instructions were given to the authorities concerned to rectify the mistake, he said.