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Sri Lanka tells Australia it will take back “boat people”

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Monday expressed willingness to take back the victims of migrant smuggling from the island nation to Australia once the formalities about their citizenship and place of origin were completed.

The assurance was conveyed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the visiting Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith.

Mr. Smith is on a special mission here to seek Colombo’s help in tackling human trafficking. Mr. Rajapaksa offered to cooperate with Australia in bringing to justice those involved in human trafficking.

The “continuing saga of boat people tragedy” has become a major headache for the ruling party in Australia. Dozens of boats carrying asylum seekers, many of them from Sri Lanka, reached Australian waters in 2009. The opposition in Australia has accused Mr. Rudd of loosening border controls.

All asylum seekers intercepted at sea are now being detained on an island more than 800 km off the northwestern coast, where they have access to legal assistance and an independent review of decisions.

Australia has so far been successful in influencing 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave an Australian customs vessel moored in Indonesian waters.

The asylum seekers, mostly Tamils, were picked up from their damaged boat by the Oceanic Viking customs vessel in Indonesia’s search and rescue zone last month. They refused to leave the boat and enter the Tanjung Pinang detention centre on the island of Bintan, northwest of Jakarta, and said they wanted to be taken to Australia.

Security clearance for the customs vessel to remain in Indonesian waters expires on November 13.

The case of the Australian government is that conflicts in countries such as Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have led to a global increase in refugees and it had nothing to do the government’s policies.

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