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| Tuesday, 16 July 2002 |
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by Jayantha Sri Nissanka Seeduwa Police on Sunday night arrested 27 persons who were illegally trying to emigrate to Italy. "They were produced before courts yesterday," a Seeduwa Police official told the Daily News. The would-be emigrants were arrested at a restaurant where they were staying before their planned departure to Italy. However, they had not known the exact date of their departure. They were expecting more colleagues to join them. Police believe that the agent who had arranged the trip has fixed a date for their departure. Police are conducting investigations to arrest the agent, the Police official said. Some of the emigrants had paid the agent Rs.50,000 to Rs.150,000 but some have given an assurance that they will pay the full amount after landing in Italy. Most of them were from the North and East, Police said. The Police and the CID have apprehended 22 major operators of illicit trafficking of persons during the past few months in a crackdown on human smuggling following a directive given by Interior Minister Jon Amaratunga two months ago. All of them are now on remand custody as offences of human smuggling are non-bailable. Police have also detected 143 persons who had travelled on forged passports. Meanwhile, several diplomats yesterday met Minister Amaratunga and urged him to take action to prevent the illegal immigration of Lankans to their countries. This was the third monthly meeting the heads of Missions had with the Minister on illicit trafficking of persons. The Ambassadors thanked the Minister for having a constant dialogue on tackling this problem. They said that measures taken so far have brought significant results and stressed that constant action is needed to track down the kingpins of human smuggling, Interior Ministry sources said. |
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