South Asia News
Sri Lankan authorities arrest refugees fleeing to Australia
Nov 24, 2009, 10:44 GMT
Colombo - Sri Lankan officials captured at least 142 people at sea who trying illegally reach Australia in four fishing trawlers, a Navy spokesman said.
The group included both minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese. The boats, which had taken off from the Batticaloa area, 240 kilometres east of the capital, were detected moving eastwards towards Australia following a tip.
'We have stepped up our vigilance in the eastern coast after a series of cases where Sri Lankans were trying to leave the country illegally to Australia,' Navy spokesman Captain Athula Senarath said.
Australia and Sri Lanka recently signed an agreement to prevent illegal immigration from Sri Lanka. The pact was reached after a series of refugees had been detected in Australian and Indonesian territorial waters.
The detained immigrants claimed they were fleeing the country due to fear of harassment as they were minority Tamils, but investigations revealed that some of them were from the majority Sinhala community leaving the country for economic reasons.
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