November 11, 2012 | The Hindu
With the State government deciding to drop
action against 65 Sri Lankan nationals against whom a case was registered under
the provisions of the Foreigners Act, the office of the Deputy High Commission
of Sri Lanka here facilitated their return. The first batch of 56 persons left
Chennai on Friday night to Colombo by a Sri Lankan airlines flight, police
sources said.
The Sri Lankan nationals, including women and
children, were heading to Christmas Islands (Australia) in a boat from Jaffna.
Tamil Nadu fishermen sighted the boat stranded in the high seas recently and
helped the victims reach Nagapattinam.
A case under the provisions of the Foreigners
Act was registered against them by the local police.
“They were lodged in the Mandapam refugees camp
in Ramanathapuram district. After the Government took a decision on
humanitarian grounds to drop action against the Sri Lankan nationals, steps
were taken to send them back,” a senior police official said on Saturday.
Despite a warning by the Australian government
that refugees who took boats to reach the country would not be given refugee
status, many clandestine boat operators lured innocent people in Sri Lanka and
other countries, he said. “The agents who organise the human trafficking are
paid in three stages. The first instalment is given before the commencement of
the journey. The second and third parts of the payment is made upon reaching
Australia and after getting a job there…apparently one boat from Sri Lanka and
another from Afghanistan reached Christmas islands recently,” the official
said, adding that the racket involved in the human trafficking operated from
Australia, Canada and Netherlands.
