The flow over a porous laminated flat plate is investigated from a flow control perspective through experiments and computations. A square array of circular cylinders is used to model the porous lamination. We determine the velocities at the fluid–porous interface by solving the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes and the continuity equations using a staggered flow solver and using LDV in experiments. The control parameters for the porous region are porosity, ϕ and Reynolds number, Re, based on the diameter of the circular cylinders used to model the porous lamination. Computations are conducted for 0.4 < ϕ< 0.9 and 25 < Re< 1000 , and the experiments are conducted for ϕ= 0.65 and 0.8 at Re≈391,497 and 803. The permeability of the porous lamination is observed to induce a slip velocity at the interface, effectively making it a slip wall. The slip velocity is seen to be increasing functions of ϕ and Re. For higher porosities at higher Re, the slip velocity shows non-uniform and unsteady behavior and a breakdown Reynolds number is defined based on this characteristic. A map demarcating the two regimes of flow is drawn from the computational and experimental data. We observe that the boundary layer over the porous lamination is thinner than the Blasius boundary layer and the shear stress is higher at locations over the porous lamination. We note that the porous lamination helps maintain a favorable pressure gradient at the interface which delays separation. The suitable range of porosities for effective passive separation control is deduced from the results. © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature.