SL Navy intercept Australia bound 'boat people' from India

Mahinda P. Liyanage, Galle correspondent

A mother with her child were among the illegal migrants.

Sixty six Tamil nationals who were intercepted by the Navy on Monday 13 nautical miles off Hakkaduwa while they were heading illegally to Australia from India in a multi-day trawler were brought to the Galle Sea Port and handed over to the Boossa Terrorist Investigation Division in Galle for further investigations. The interception was made by a Fast Naval Craft attached to the Southern Naval Command.

Investigations revealed that the illegal migrants that included females and children were Sri Lankan refugees who had been in various refugee camps in Tamil Nadu since 2006 and had got on board on May 2 from Kochi.

The TID suspects the operation to be a part of a massive racket to smuggle people to Australia and has initiated intensive investigations into the incident.

The illegal migrants were to be produced before Galle Chief Magistrate yesterday evening by the TID investigators who hoped to obtained detention orders in respect of the suspects for further interrogation.

However, observers point out that these risky voyages to Australia have turned out to be frequent occurrences despite action jointly launched by Sri Lankan and Australian authorities.

Further it is reported that Australia during the recent past had sent back over 1,000 Sri Lankan illegal migrants.