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CID wrecked the boat All of them carrying small travelling bags were hurriedly making their way to fishing trawlers waiting for them close to the shore. The seas were choppy and most fishermen who regularly go to sea had decided to stay away that night making conditions ideal for the human smuggling. CID detectives were about to stumble upon a major international illegal immigrant racket in which Sri Lanka has turned into a transit point. The CID sleuths on the beach, some of them posing off as fishermen were in contact with their chief Sisara Mendis who was in contact with DIG Lionel Gunatillake and anti-human smuggling unit chief D.S.Y. Samaratunga. In turn SSP Mendis had alerted the Navy and requested its co-operation to bust the racket which was dragging Sri Lanka into international notoriety. As the trawlers were leaving the shores of Kudawella for a rendezvous with a ship, a single Dvora naval craft was positioned off Dondra to look out for the ship which would be carrying the illegal immigrants to Italy. As the men were boarding the ship and one of the trawlers was bringing in the last batch to board the ship the Navy stormed in. Some 183 people on board the ship and another 29 on board the trawler 'Shaniputha' - all of them would- be illegal immigrants were arrested. Seven crew members headed by a Russian Mamaew Alexander Petrovich and five Sri Lankans were among those arrested. All of them are now remanded as investigations continue. The CID's operation bust-up had begun 10 days before the ship called over at the Colombo harbour when SSP Mendis was tipped off by an informant. Strangely the smuggling ship was named ‘Invincible’ and flew a Mongolian flag. The ship was operated by a company known as 'Palazzo Shipping', in Marshall Islands, but carried an address registered in Greece. With the information in hand the CID probed further and discovered that the same ship had called over at the Colombo harbour in the first week of February and stayed on till April on the pretext of changing its crew, replenishing food stocks and for routine repairs. But in the first call the ship was named Jenlil with a South Korean registration, though the captain was the same. CID believes that the ship had then tried to undertake a similar mission carrying illegal immigrants but on the way it learnt of a possible check in the Suez Canal and the mission was terminated with the human cargo being dumped in Sudan. When the newly
named Invincible arrived in Sri Lanka on June 20 the captain claimed
that the ship was here for a change of the crew, routine repairs
and replenishment of stocks before heading for Karachchi. The ship
was anchored off the Panadura area. During the stay the ship had been overloaded with a suspiciously large stock of food- as much as two tons of wheat flour, two tons Basmathi rice, two tons of B'onions, one ton of Sugar 500 Kgs of Potato , 400 Kgs of kowpea, 200 Kgs of Gram and 50 Kgs of Chiliie powder. The ship was not on a food export business and obviously a crew of seven did not need even a fraction of those stocks for a voyage of a few days. Thus questions arise as to why Port officials allowed such a big overload and whether some of them were in the know. On June 25 the captain of the ship informed the pilot station at the Colombo Port that it was leaving Sri Lankan waters and heading to a port in Karachchi meaning that it would be leaving northwards. Instead the ship turned southwards confirming the suspicions of the CID. Eventually the ship was detected in Tangalle on June 30 before it was apprehended at 1.30 a.m. the following day. Two CID teams, one headed by Chief Inspector Mevan Silva and the other by Inspector R.K.Widyasekara had been working to unearth details of the major international illegal racket. So far investigations have revealed that the mastermind in the operation in Sri Lanka had been a Sri Lankan woman who was previously jailed for a similar offence abroad. Assisting her were two local organisers and two Pakistanis. The role of
the ship's local agent in Colombo will also be probed detectives
said. During the investigation it has been revealed that the Pakistani's had come to Sri Lanka in batches and got visas on arrival. They claimed to be travelling to Colombo for business purposes or on holiday, but strangely few if any questions were asked about who their business contacts were or where they intended staying. This has raised diplomatic questions as to whether there is wide scale misuse of visa concessions among South Asian nations. Earlier Indians and Bangladeshis on similar missions had been arrested and some of them are still in remand. According to the Pakistanis who are now being held at the Boosa detention camp they had paid nearly 1000 US dollars to their Pakistani agent, another 1000 US dollars on arrival to the local agent and a third fee of 2000 US dollars once they reached their destination. The Pakistanis who came here in batches over a period of three weeks had been kept by the operators at an unidentified location close to the airport and then taken to a hotel in Bandarawela before being taken to the beach at Kudawella to undertake their long journey to Italy. Adding to the confusion The Russian captain claims he was unaware of an illegal immigrant racket and that the Pakistanis had suddenly boarded the ship. A Sri Lankan Airforce officer - an aeronautics engineer who studied in Russia acted as the translator. The Russian embassy officials who visited the captain to look into his welfare were turned away with the captain claiming he would be looked after by his agent in Greece. Detectives said the address used in the documentation of the ship when it first arrived in Colombo in February under the name of 'Jenlil' was similar to the address given when it called at the Colombo port this time. The only difference was the number of the building but it contained the same name of a street in Greece. The CID will be charging the crew members and the Pakistani nationals under the Immigration and Emigration Act. They could face a fine of upto Rs. 200,000 and six months in jail. The offence is non-bailable and bail could be only considered in the Court of Appeal. Britain
nails Lankans on fingers The British Home Office announced recently that Sri Lankans applying for visas to Britain, would be required to provide a record of their fingerprints as part of a project to use biometric data. "Sri Lanka has been selected for this pilot project as Sri Lanka nationals continue to make significant numbers of unfounded asylum applications- and use false identities in the process," the Home Office said in a statement. British High Commission spokesperson Margaret Tongue told The Sunday Times that Sri Lanka was listed among the finger print nations because the High Commission here was a busy one and the London authorities hope to use Colombo as a model to see how the new procedure worked. She said children under five years, holders of diplomatic passports and officials on official business would be exempted. She said that last year there were 3180 assylum applications from Sri Lanka, of which 325 were given asylum status and another 275 were given temporary permission to remain. The spokesperson said Sri Lankans should not take this personally as the fingerprinting project was only a pilot project and would be implemented in several countries if it worked here. She said the Sri Lanka government had agreed to the fingerprinting and was giving its full co-operation. However the statement issued by the Home Office gives a different picture. "Fingerprint data will be held electronically to help identify the significant number of Sri Lankans who, on or after arrival in the UK, make fraudulent asylum or immigration applications in a false identity. Fingerprints will be collected from applicants at the British Diplomatic Mission in Colombo using electronic data capture equipment. Data would be stored electronically on a database and shared with police and other law enforcement agencies. "For an
initial six months , we will collect fingerprints from everyone
who applies for a visa in Sri Lanka. This will not only enable us
to identify people who destroy their documents and then claim asylum
under another name, but will also help us to obtain new travel documents
to remove false asylum seekers," the statement said. Meanwhile in
contrast to the strong worded statement issued by the Home Office
in London, The British High Commission in Colombo has adopted a
softer tone.
Sexed-up
workout Just two weeks ago, other seniors discovered that the aide was engaged in a different kind of late night exercises at the gym– having a love tryst regularly with a female colleague. He was caught red handed. Although the matter was brought to the attention of the boss, a new comer, insiders complain the matter has been hushed up. The only punishment has been a secret directive asking the aide not to go to the gym during late night hours. Now a petition
is in the making. It is to be sent to the Ministry of defence urging
a full inquiry. Besides the complaint of sexual misconduct, would-be
signatories to the petition say the aide has kept the boss away
from many others in the organization. It’s
all for the people " I have drawn up a good plan for the area. My idea is to develop it into an entertainment city. Unlike some others who first come to parliament and then go globetrotting, I have come to parliament after having first travelled round the world,” he said. However the trips abroad doesn't seem to have taught him much, going by his boisterous behaviour in the electorate he represents. It
was a nature call Tips
from Hillary Hopefully he might be able to pick up some tips on how to seize power soon from reading the book. |
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