Sri Lanka Navy prevented an illegal migration attempt to Australia by boat and detained 18 would-be asylum seekers yesterday.
The naval personnel apprehended the 18 Sri Lankans who were heading towards Australia in the seas 40 nautical miles off Batticaloa on Monday morning, ColomboPage online newspaper reported. The migrants left from Valaichchenai onboard a Multi-Day Fishing Vessel named “Blue Star”.
The Navy managed to seize them on a tip-off received by intelligence personnel and the suspects were brought to the Trincomalee harbour.
Subsequently the personnel were handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department — Maritime Division for further investigations.
The Navy warned the general public not to involve in high risk sea-borne migration to Australia based on false information provided by human smugglers and reiterated that such attempts would finally end up in them getting
arrested.
SRI LANKA
