Sri Lanka
's navy Tuesday detained 90 people illegally travelling in a trawler
bound for the French territory of Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, a
spokesman said. Commander Dinesh Bandara said the fishing boat was
seized off Sri Lanka 's west coast and was being escorted to Colombo with 89 men and a woman on board. Sri Lanka’s navy yesterday detained 90 people illegally travelling in a
trawler bound for the French territory of Reunion Island in the Indian
Ocean, a spokesman said.
Commander Dinesh Bandara said the fishing boat was seized off Sri
Lanka’s west coast and was being escorted to Colombo with 89 men and a
woman on board.
“Preliminary investigations suggest that the boat was heading to Reunion
Island,” Bandara said. “From there, they may have planned to move to
another
destination.”
Sri Lankans are known to pay thousands of dollars to people smugglers to
arrange highly risky boat rides to Europe, Australia or New Zealand in
search of better economic prospects.
However, the number of would-be emigrants leaving the island has
drastically declined since Australia in 2013 closed its borders to
illegal boat people with a military operation and zero tolerance policy.
Canberra’s hardline immigration policy sees asylum-seekers who try to
reach Australia by boat processed in offshore compounds on Nauru and
Papua New Guinea, with over 30 boats turned back since it began.
In May, a group of 131 Sri Lankans were stopped by Malaysian authorities
as they tried to head towards New Zealand by boat. All were returned to
Sri Lanka to face prosecution for
illegally leaving the island.
A diozen Sri-Lankan deported by Australia
At least a dozen Sri Lankan asylum seekers were yesterday forcibly
deported by Australian authorities back to the island nation, a media
report said.
Some of the men deported had been in detention for more than six years
in Australia while others still had challenges before Australian courts
pending. The majority were Tamil, but at least one was Sinhalese, the
Guardian reported.
The asylum seekers were transported from detention centres across
Australia and taken to Perth, from where they were flown out on a
charter flight.
The group has landed in Colombo but has not made contact with family or legal representatives, according to authorities.
Returned asylum seekers are, without previous exception, interviewed, arrested and charged by Sri Lanka police on arrival.
Human rights groups and legal advocates have serious concerns over the safety of returned asylum seekers.
The UN rapporteur on countering terrorism wrote in a report in July that
Sri Lanka’s progress towards peace had “virtually ground to a halt” and
that he heard evidence of “very brutal and cruel methods of torture,
including beatings with sticks, the use of stress positions,
asphyxiation using plastic bags drenched in kerosene, pulling out of
fingernails”.
With airlines under pressure globally over their role in forced
deportation, the Australian government is increasingly using charter
flights to deport asylum seekers it has judged do not meet its
protection obligations.
Meanwhile, the Australian government has consistently defended its
removal processes of asylum seekers, saying it adheres strictly to
international law, the Guardian said.