The shores of Kochi have not been alien to Sri Lankan refugees prepared to risk nightmarish sea journeys for fulfilling their dream of a better life in Australia, leaving behind the hardships of refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.
If the group of 43, which has, reportedly, set sail for Australia from Munambam near here in the early hours of Saturday are Sri Lankan refugees, as they are prima facie suspected to be, then their numbers to hit the shores here since 2010 have by now crossed 100.
Only, the latest group has managed to set off for the perilous journey as planned without being interrupted by enforcement agencies.
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In September 2011, the police rescued 37 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, including four women and four children, from Kothamangalam and Thadiyittaparambu. They were brought mostly from Mandapam camp in Tamil Nadu by agents on the promise of being taken to Australia.
Five Sri Lankan agents, who had demanded between ₹2 lakh and ₹4 lakh from the refugees, were also taken into custody.
In June 2010, the police had similarly foiled the attempt of 16 Sri Lankan refugees.
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The plot played out along the same lines in April 2013 when the Aluva police arrested 10 Sri Lankan natives, including a minor, who were trying to board a fishing vessel from Munambam. The arrested had been living in various refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.
They told the police that they were part of a larger group that had split up to avoid detection. In fact, a day after their arrest, the Karnataka police held 88 Sri Lankan natives.
Two years later in September 2015, the Ernakulam Rural Police, after a three hour-long midnight chase, foiled yet another bid to traffic nine Sri Lankan nationals to Australia on board a fishing vessel from Munambam.
Trafficking racket
They had reached Kerala by bus and rail and paid between ₹80,000 and ₹1 lakh each to the agents for taking them to Australia. It later emerged that Sanjay Kumar, key operative of the racket, had earlier attempted to take people to Europe on board a fishing vessel from Thiruvananthapuram.
A straight trip from here to the western coast of Australia takes around 20 days. However, not all refugees make it as many of them get caught by other countries and are either imprisoned or deported while many lose their lives at sea.