Karunatilaka Amunugama
The Australian government has proposed establishing a committee comprising Sri Lankan and Australian government officials to look into the illegal migrants’ issue, External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatilaka Amunugama said.
“The External Affairs Ministry is working with the Australian government to set up the committee,” he said. Speaking on the illegal migration issue, Amunugama said they were worried about the safety of Sri Lankans who risk their lives to illegally migrate to Australia by motorised multi-day fishing boats.
“The activity is carried out by an organised ring of human smugglers. They lure people into their multi-million rupee people - smuggling racket by promising them a better life in other countries. The smuggling of migrants is a global concern,” he said.
“The victims of these clandestine operations undergo unimaginable hardships in their harsh search for a better life,” Amunugama said.
Meanwhile, the number of illegal migration incidents have shown a marked increase in Sri Lanka over the past nine months, Navy sources said.
Navy Spokesman Commodore Kosala Warnakulasuriya said the number of illegal migration attempts to Australia increased considerably over the past four months.
“The Navy arrested 2,000 Sri Lankans, including women and children who attempted to illegally migrate to Australia on multi-day fishing boats from January to September this year,” he said.“ It is quite surprising the way this number of illegal migration attempts seem to grow despite repeated arrests made by us in the sea,” he said.
“The majority of arrests were made between July and September. A majority were Tamil citizens,” Warnakulasuriya said “We have deployed additional Navy patrol vessels to look for vessels bound for Australia with illegal migrants,” he said.
Chamikara Weerasinghe
Source: Daily News (18th September 2012)
