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| Sunday, 20 February 2005 |
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Human smuggling under microscope Crime Sunday by Jaympathy Jayasinghe It was one of those moonless nights at the Wennappuwa beach. There was pitch darkness except for the flickering of lamps of Catamaran fishing boats out in the distant sea. Despite the darkness there was some unusual activity on the beach taking place in the middle of the night. Something strange was happening out there on the beach. Nearly three hundred people had assembled there at an unearthly hour under the cover of darkness. They moved about on the beach stealthily from one point to another. What were they really upto?. There were 154 of them, males altogether from different ethnic backgrounds being herded into a mechanised boat that was bound to Italy. It was one of the biggest human smuggling operation to be staged in recent times. Four years ago police arrested 254 foreign nationals at Tangalle attempting to escape to Italy by boat. The suspects from a SAARC country were charged in courts and were deported to their country. Human trafficking Last week's batch of 141 illicit immigrants from Sri Lanka left the shores of Wennappuwa without a hassle in the middle of the night. The facilitators of the racket were tight lipped and kept every bit of detail under wraps as they feared that someone would leak out information to the police. Human smugglers also fear an encounter with naval patrols that patrols the Indian ocean regularly. But these days fewer naval patrols are seen after the government entered into a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE. Smugglers in fact have seized the opportunity to engage in illicit human trafficking and narcotics smuggling across the Indian ocean. Human smuggling has become such a lucrative trade that smugglers often indulge in risks despite harsh punishment meted out in court. According to Senior Supdt. of Police (CID), D.S.Y. Samaratunga in-charge of anti-smuggling operations, the boat loaded with people is heading its way to Rome via Egypt. A frantic search for the boat has already begun after the CID was tipped off by informants. However by the time the local police arrived, the boat had left the Wennappuwa beach. In the meantime several messages were flashed to Interpol branches in Rome, Cairo and other countries to intercept the boat with 141 people. Although an alert has been sounded it has not yielded any positive results so far. SSP Samaratunga said that the boat is believed to be sailing towards Cairo or had diverted its course to avoid detection. However unconfirmed reports say that the boat had been intercepted in Yemen on Friday. CID sleuths are keeping a tab on the latest development with the help of the Interpol. Masterminds Meanwhile Police have begun to question some relatives of those who have sailed to Italy with a view to track down the masterminds responsible for organising such a voyage. According to police, passengers have paid large sums of money for the facilitators to get across to Italy. Several police teams have been detailed to arrest the masterminds who are evading arrest. Last December the Sri Lankan Navy arrested sixty five persons in the high seas off Negombo bound to Italy. The suspects were handed over to the Harbour police. Meanwhile the police are looking for two Indian facilitators following the arrest of three Indian nationals who had attempted to get across to Italy with forged documents. Although the three Indian nationals had arrived in the country with genuine passports, they had used forged documents to get across to Italy. It is believed that forged documents had been given to them by the two Indian facilitators who have disappeared. Statistics show that an average of 50 Sri Lankans are smuggled into Italy every month. Sri Lanka has emerged as a transit point for an Asian international smuggling ring because of the relaxed visa rules. A few years back officials from law enforcement agencies of 38 countries in Asia met in Colombo to discuss problems relating to human smuggling and other related transnational crimes.
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