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18 deported asylum seekers return to Sri Lanka
A group of 18 Sri Lankans who left the country illegally and sought asylum in Australia returned to Sri Lanka yesterday after choosing to return home instead of being placed in a detention centre on a Pacific island, a senior police official said. “They made statements to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on arrival and were then released,” he said. The latest development comes even as another 85 Sri Lankans were arrested by the Navy off the Galle coast while attempting to make an illegal dash for Australia in two multi-day fishing trawlers.
The Australian government has set up refugee processing centres offshore in a bid to discourage boat people from coming to the country. The Australia government has secured two islands in Papua New Guinea and Nauru for the purpose. The detention centres provide free food, shelter, medicine and other basic needs. Refugees are banned from seeking employment in the host country. The authorities in Colombo say detention centres on offshore islands will not discourage persons from seeking to enter Australia, and that human trafficking will continue.
According to External Affairs Secretary Karunatilleke Amunugama, the Australian government should go one step further and deport those who enter the country through illegal channels. “Sending these persons to a detention centre that provides all the basic needs until their refugee claims are processed is inadequate and will only encourage more people to make the sea journey to Australia,” he said last week.
Mr. Amunugama’s views were endorsed by the Navy, which has a challenging time preventing boat people from leaving the country. A senior Navy officer told the Sunday Times that for this year alone more than 2,000 Sri Lankans have been arrested while attempting to reach the Australian coast in overcrowded boats.
Meanwhile, Media Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Keheliya Rambukwella has said that refugees returning to the country will face minimum charges and will not be unduly harassed. “This is an agreement we have with several countries in order to encourage the refugees to return home and bring an end to human trafficking,” he said. “The country is now free of war and those seeking refuge in foreign countries could be described as economic refugees,” he said.
The Australian High Commission has said in a statement regarding deported persons: “These individuals chose not to pursue asylum claims and face transfer to a regional processing centre in Nauru or Papua New Guinea and instead chose to return home voluntarily. We have completed more transfers of boat arrivals to Nauru this week and they will continue to occur in the coming days and weeks,” the statement added.
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