Sri Lanka's tightened visa policies have triggered a "deportation wave," with hundreds of Chinese workers being scrutinized and expelled, a reality far more brutal than online propaganda. Recently, the local government has launched a comprehensive crackdown on illegal labor, targeting behaviors such as working on tourist visas, affiliating with shell companies, and forging contracts. Previously, Chinese online platforms widely propagated that "Sri Lanka is the next land of opportunity," but now, many are facing a nightmarish end.
In the past few months, Sri Lanka has been packaged on social media as a "new gold rush" site: low cost, easy visa processing, and lax regulation, where one could easily make money while drinking coconut water by the beach. With agents claiming "you can work on a tourist visa" and flaunting videos of cash, many packed their bags and headed to South Asia. However, since June 2025, a series of sudden law enforcement actions quickly shattered these illusions, turning island dreams into cold numbers on the deportation list.
From July to early August, hundreds of Chinese citizens have been arrested and deported for visa violations and contract fraud. Some were stopped on their way to work, others were taken directly from their posts, and some were knocked on their doors in rental houses and sent on return flights without even packing their luggage. What's more devastating is that the agents who promised "one-stop visa service" had already disappeared, with WeChat gone and offices closed, leaving behind irrecoverable losses.
In fact, this high-pressure operation had been anticipated. Earlier this year, the immigration bureau and the labor department had repeatedly issued internal warnings about cleaning up affiliations and regulating the misuse of tourist visas. Targeting the Chinese working group, law enforcement had already completed data comparisons and tracking investigations, just waiting to net them all at once. The authorities also clarified that this was not a one-time action, but a long-term strict inspection mechanism to be implemented.
Those who once exclaimed "this place is like Cambodia ten years ago" have now disappeared. Those who remain have been deported before even making money, or even fallen into dilemmas of passport confiscation, account freezing, personal restrictions, and carrying fines and blacklists. One interviewee said bluntly, "The videos only talk about how free it is here, but no one tells you that once something goes wrong, no one can save you."
This change is not only happening in Sri Lanka. After Cambodia cracked down on online fraud, it tightened visa policies; the Philippines strictly controlled agents and cleaned up platforms; Myanmar and Laos partially closed their borders to foreign nationals or faced increased risks. Information gaps and regulatory loopholes are being closed, and this region no longer tolerates affiliate-style survival.
This wave of deportations has not only swept away illegal workers but also sounded an alarm for those blindly going overseas. Going abroad is not an escape, and a visa is not a gamble. Legal compliance, transparent information, and genuine employment are the baseline for establishing oneself overseas. Today it is Sri Lanka, and tomorrow it might be the place you are planning to go to. Don't wait for a deportation order to understand that the so-called "opportunity" might just be someone else's script, and you are just a disposable pawn written into it.
