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Italian police nab 66 Sri Lankan illegal immigrants

ROME, Sunday (AFP) A boat carrying 66 Sri Lankans was held near the Sicilian city of Syracuse on Saturday as police intercepted nearly 170 would-be immigrants in incidents across the south of the country.

The incidents came a day after the government enlisted the navy to try to stem the tide of clandestine immigrants crossing Italy's 7,600-kilometre (4,720-mile) coastline.

Meanwhile, an Albanian man drowned while attempting to enter Italy illegally and the police said the dead man was one of 14 people travelling on a small boat from Albania which was arrested near the southern city of Lecce. The detainees included a woman, a 12-year-old child and the boat crew, who had forced their passengers to jump overboard when they saw a police boat approaching.

The incident, in which police also seized 200 kilogrammes (441 pounds) of marijuana, occurred just 50 meters (55 yards) from the coast.

Elsewhere, police in Andrano detained 90 Iraqi Kurds trying to enter the country and confined them a holding center.

The authorities intercepted a boat carrying 66 Sri Lankans near the Sicilian city of Syracuse.

And they arrested three Turks suspected of belonging to the crew of a boat that brought 477 illegal immigrants, including 102 children, into the Calabrian port of Gallipoli on Wednesday.

The three, all in their mid-twenties, were named as Selin Kose, Sirin Turan and Kaja Vediat.

They had allegedly fled after docking and then sabotaging the boat, damaging its engine and wheelhouse. They were arrested after being identified by their passengers.

Italy has introduced a series of stringent laws in an attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigration, including a highly controversial bill that introduces harsh prison sentences for immigrants who return to Italy after being expelled.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants come ashore on Italy's Adriatic coast every month after paying unscrupulous traffickers for passage.

Most of the immigrants come from Balkan countries but an increasing number are arriving from further afield, including the Middle East and Sri Lanka.

The government said some 8,500 illegal immigrants were arrested in northeastern Italy in 2001, substantially fewer than the previous year's 17,000. 

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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