Navy detects two trawlers

Ridma Dissanayake

The Navy Thursday arrested another 86 persons illegally bound for Australia on two multi -day trawlers.

The trawler Senesha Duwa with 67 persons, including 58 Tamils and nine Sinhalese on board and the other named “Seloni Duwa” with 19 persons including 14 Tamils and five Sinhalese on board were intercepted 20 nautical miles off Chillaw.

Among the arrested persons are 79 men, two women and five children,(two boys and three girls). They are residents of Jaffna, Mullaithivu, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Chilaw, Mannar, Negombo and Anamaduwa.

With Thursday’s arrest, the Navy detected 427 illegal migrants heading to Australia within the fist half of this month. The total number of illegal migrants arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy has risen upto 2031 with these 86 and all were handed over to the CID for further investigations, after being brought to Modara Fisheries Harbour.