It had
been a bore last month as nothing much was coming up and was
apathetic. Actually wanted to give you all an update on that visa
scam at the UK High Commission, Colombo, but fell short of
motivation. The good news is that we got the passport back – and
the bad news being the visa was expired by the time we got it.
Shamelessly,
the bastards at the UKHC Colombo asked us to visit that fortress to
collect it, saying that “why did you not come sooner? It was here
all the time!”. Literally they were saying that passports were to
be collected from the high commission, not VFS! Knowing this to be
nothing more than a baseless lie, and knowing that the security staff
at the gate would scream “go to VFS”, we had prepared ourselves
to gather as much evidence as humanely possible. Lo and behold, the
security staff took pains to explain us that ALL passport matters are
(mis)handled by the VFS. I, in turn, took pains to explain that its
not there but here. Now, the local officers involved in security have
nothing to do with this, and its not my policy to tell them their
masters are passport thieves. So kept it blacked. merely told them we were
asked by the diplomatic staff themselves to come here, not go there.
Anyway,
after a few pleasant exchanges over the intercom, they called in
their office who in a few minutes responded by instructing them to
allow only the applicant to come inside. As was the case before, once
inside, the fellows were polite, and have given the passport back –
alas, they lied again by saying “why did you ever go to VFS, its
all handled by us here, and the passport was here for your collection
all the time”. What a pathetic bunch of liars and thieves. Bastards
were not even coming to the phone during very early stages,
let alone inviting anyone to come and meet them in flesh.
There are
two things I want to tell about UK High Commission in Sri Lanka:
Firstly,
it does not present the picture of approachability – rather looking
like a Guantanamo Bay planted in the middle of Colombo. As much as I
do understand security concerns, not being able to reach on phone
with civility, being rude, not answering emails, NOT HAVING A PUBLIC
RELATIONS SECTION, and, oh and being such a biatch.
Secondly,
it makes me wonder whether its rather the local staff who are
kingpins of visa scams. Now, this does not exonerate the diplomatic
staff themselves - nothing could ever happen without their direct
patronage, but the scammers could be a much smaller minority than one
perceives them to be. In addition, one can easily guess that this
fortress of hideous secrecy can only give birth to visa scams because
applicants can be manipulated as there is no reporting framework to lodge complaints.
It boils
down to indicate that no more than two or three of the diplomatic
core could be corrupted – local staff being the major operatives of
all scams. This some sort of news to me, having experienced it only
once before elsewhere. In all other cases, it had been the diplomats
who are masterminds while locals being mere middlemen or minions.
Well, as
the National Lottery kept saying, stranger things have happened....
