- by: Paul Maley
- From: The Australian
- December 18, 2012
AUSTRALIA will share intelligence about people-smuggling
with Sri Lanka in a significant - and controversial - expansion of the security
relationship with Colombo.
Foreign
Minister Bob Carr announced yesterday a "four-point plan" with Sri
Lanka, aimed at cracking down on the booming people-smuggling trade now
operating across the Indian Ocean.
Under
the plan, Australia will boost the capacity of the Sri Lankan navy to disrupt
smuggling ventures by training officials in maritime and air surveillance and
identifying gaps in Colombo's capacity to stop boats.
A
$700,000 information campaign will air across TV, radio and cinema advertising
to deter would-be migrants, and Australia will spend $45 million in aid over
five years to develop poorer areas.
But
it is the expanded intelligence sharing arrangements that will prove to be the
most controversial.
Australia
will provide more surveillance and electronic equipment to the Sri Lankans in
what Senator Carr described as a "clear agenda for intelligence sharing,
naval co-operation and helping rebuild Sri Lanka".
Government
sources said last night the focus would be on providing more information to the
Sri Lankan government about people-smugglers - rather than their clients - and
to boost the ability of local authorities to disrupt ventures.
Much
of the information Australian security agencies gather about Sri Lankan
people-smuggling syndicates derives from Sri Lankan boatpeople debriefed on
Christmas Island.
It
was not clear how much of that information would now be shared with Colombo.
Australia
has traditionally been reluctant to share too much amid concerns over the Sri
Lankan government's human rights record.
