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After Labor Party victory more Sri Lankans trying to flee to Australia
With Australia’s Labor party coming into power and ending a nine-year long conservative party rule, the change of government has given fresh hope to Sri Lankans who are trying to flee the country due to the economic crisis.
Within days after new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party defeated former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal-National coalition in the country’s federal election, at least 100 people are known to have made bookings for illegal migration via sea passages.
Hours after the Labor party declared victory, it was revealed that about 15 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, whose vessel was intercepted near Christmas Island, were flown back home in a charted airplane.
Soon after the vessel was intercepted by the Australian Border Force last Saturday, the department said the Australian government’s policy remains unchanged.
Sri Lanka Navy apprehended a boatload of asylum seekers
“We will intercept any vessel seeking to reach Australia illegally and safely return those on board to their point of departure or country of origin,” a spokesperson said.
Sky News reported that there had been a take back procedure which was enacted in relation to the people on board that vessel.
“They have been returned to Sri Lanka and that has happened in a very ordinary and routine way,” Sky NEws reported.
In the latest Navy arrest of 45 individuals from two separate incidents in the Southern and Western seas where two multi-day fishing vessels were taken into custody, it was revealed they were en-route to Australia. They were residents of Kalpitiya, Chilaw, Puttalam, Negombo and Kilinochchi.
On Monday, another multi-day fishing vessel with 67 people on board was intercepted by Navy patrolling units in Sallisampaltivu and the seas off Trincomalee. Among the apprehended people were; 45 males including five suspects believed to be human smugglers, seven females and three children from Jaffna, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Puttalam, Ampara, Ratnapura, Gampaha and Colombo.
On May 18, Eastern Naval patrolling units intercepted another fishing vessel with 40 people who tried to illegally migrate to Australia from Kalawanchikudi in Batticaloa.
The Sunday Times learned that smugglers reportedly charged about Rs 1.5 million for a person for the nearly three week-long dangerous sea passage, with Rs 300,000 paid upfront before the journey and the rest of the amount to be paid after reaching the Australian mainland.
The Sri Lankan Navy also stepped up its patrolling units and surveillance activities in selected coastal areas of the North, East and Western regions where similar illegal smuggling activities were reported earlier.
“Following political developments in different parts of the world, human traffickers tend to plot illegal migration journeys, deceiving innocent people for a fast buck,’” a Navy spokesperson said.
The Navy also urged people to refrain from risking their lives and property by embarking on perilous sea voyages in un-seaworthy vessels and becoming victims in the eyes of the law, in addition to being caught by the tricks of smugglers.
“The Navy is doing what is necessary to curb this kind of illegal activity happening in our seas,” Navy spokesman Indika de Silva said.
| Australia frees asylum seekers after public outcry By Tiffanie Turnbull A family whose detention has focused anger over Australia’s asylum-seeker policies have won a four-year battle to return to their Queensland town. Australia’s new government granted visas to the Murugappan family, allowing them to temporarily live and work in Biloela.  The Murugappan family The Tamil family has been in immigration detention since 2018 after their claim for asylum was rejected. The case sparked an outcry and locals in Biloela campaigned for their return. Legal challenges to the decision to deny them protection remain before Australia’s courts. Under controversial policies, Australia can hold asylum seekers like the Murugappans in indefinite detention while it assesses their refugee claims or takes steps to deport them. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would make an exception for the Murugappans. “We are a strong enough society to say that we should not treat people badly, in order to send a message to others,” he said on Friday. The family’s supporters have called for the government to use their powers to grant them permanent residency, instead of temporary visas. Priya Nadaraja and Nadesalingam Murugappan arrived in Australia on separate boat trips a decade ago, and sought asylum. They said they feared persecution in Sri Lanka because of their Tamil ethnicity. Each settled in outback Biloela, where they met, married and had two girls – Kopika, seven, and Tharnicaa, four. But the government detained them in 2018 after ruling the family had no legal right to be in Australia. Locals in Biloela fought for them to stay, kicking off a campaign that won national support and the backing of MPs from across the political spectrum. Australia argues its strict policies on asylum seekers prevent human trafficking and deaths at sea, but the UN has criticised its approach as inhumane. Courtesy BBC
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