Disincentive to people trying to reach Australia:

Eighteen asylum seekers opt to return home

by Ranil WIJAYAPALA

The controversial issue of Sri Lankan asylum seekers to Australia took a new turn yesterday as 18 Sri Lankans who were eligible to be sent for offshore processing by the Australian authorities volunteered to return to Sri Lanka rather than pursuing their asylum claims, immigration and diplomatic sources told the Sunday Observer.

Immigration and Emigration Controller Chulananda Perera said the 18 Sri Lankans on a chartered flight arrived at 11.05 am yesterday at the Bandaranaike International Airport. He said that Immigration officials at the Katunayake airport handed them over to the Criminal Investigation Department and the State Intelligence Service for further investigations.

According to reports from Australia these Sri Lankans have volunteered to return to Sri Lanka as the Australian authorities started sending the people arriving there in boats to Nauru and to Papua New Guinea’s Manus island under a program “Offshore processing”.

According to the authorities in Australia, they have decided to send them for offshore processing as a disincentive to people trying to reach Australia after risking their lives at sea.

Agency reports quoted the Australian Immigration Minister Chris Brown as saying that 18 Sri Lankan men who were eligible to be sent offshore were returning home voluntarily and left on a flight from the Christmas Island to Colombo yesterday.

“They chose not to pursue asylum claims and face transfer to a regional processing centre in Nauru or Papua New Guinea, and instead chose to return home voluntarily,” he was quoted in Agency reports.

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe told the Sunday Observer that the current situation was a result of the relentless efforts by the Defence Ministry, External Affairs Ministry and Immigration Department to counter the propaganda carried out by pro LTTE lobby groups.

He said this was the first voluntary repatriation, in addition to the involuntary repatriation of Sri Lankan asylum seekers from the UK reported last week.

“For the first time the Australian media, SBS and Channel 7 gave a true picture of Sri Lanka through their investigative reports, countering false propaganda of the LTTE front organisations saying that there was no torture, persecution and harassment but it was due to economic hardships they are fleeing Sri Lanka by illegal means and seeking asylum in Australia,” he said.

“Now there is no room for false allegations in Australia”, the High Commissioner said. He said the Australian Opposition Leader Isobel Redmond and Deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop openly said that there cannot be refugees from Sri Lanka and asked to send them back immediately.

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in his submissions to the expert panel on the issue of asylum seekers has recommended the visible repatriation as a measure of discouraging the people seeking asylum in Australia risking their lives at sea. Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said the 18 Sri Lankans, which include fourteen Sinhalese, three Tamils and one Muslim arrived at the Katunayake airport at 11.30 am from the charter flight ASY- 769.

“Police are recording statements from these people and will be released after recording their statements.

We are basically conducting investigations into their departure and if proved that they had violated immigration laws then, they will be summoned for further investigations.