Lanka’s HC rules out asylum seekers in Australia

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe said he didn’t expect a flood of asylum seekers to follow the 66 potential refugees who astonished onlookers with their arrival in Geraldton.

Passengers of the rickety boat that pulled into the busy port on Tuesday remain in the country but will be flown to Christmas Island for processing as soon as possible, an Australian Immigration Department spokeswoman said.

The women and children remain at various undisclosed locations, understood to be in Perth. The single men are at Yongah Hill Detention Centre in Northam, where the facility is substantially under its 600-person capacity, Shire President Steve Pollard said.

Samarasinghe told Fairfax radio that he expected that the asylum seekers would not be refugees and would be sent back to Sri Lanka as soon as possible.

He said it had been four years since the country eradicated terrorism and denied accusations of ongoing human rights violations against Tamils. He believed the Geraldton arrivals were keen to live in Australia “purely for economic reasons”.

A single boat slipping through maritime surveillance after no intelligence tip-offs was not serious, Admiral Samarasinghe said.

Any boats attempting a similar journey were likely to be intercepted by the Sri Lankan Navy’s cordon and if not, there were no guarantees there would be fair weather all the way to the Australian mainland, he said.

Courtesy - Australian press