COLOMBO, March 15: Additional security checks by the navy at the Colombo port to ensure no illegal items enter the country under the guise of tsunami aid have caused a furore among traders importing essential and perishable items.
Six hundred and fifty containers of essential goods, including perishables like onions and potatoes, have been held up at the Colombo port since last Thursday with only about thirty containers cleared so far, traders say.
“So far they have checked only twenty to thirty containers. We were not warned about this new procedure,” Pettah Traders’ Association secretary G. Illamanathan said.
A navy spokesman confirmed that the containers being checked consisted of perishable items. He said the navy was following a directive to detect illegal items arriving as tsunami aid.
