Namal denies smuggling people

Only involved in North-East projects

By Camelia Nathaniel-2012-07-19 

Responding to allegations leveled against him, MP Namal Rajapaksa denied involvement in illegal operations of a human smuggling ring that transports asylum seekers to Australia. “I am being targeted falsely by most of the Tamil websites, for the benefit of the Tamil Diaspora, in an attempt to bring disrepute to the country. I am involved in many projects including the rehabilitation of the youth in the North and East areas. We conduct workshops for around 50,000 school children every three months. Therefore this is yet another mudslinging campaign launched against me by sinister elements with ulterior motives. The government is providing all the facilities for the people in the North and East, hence there is no need for these people to risk their lives in search of greener pastures. Since the end of the war many development projects and livelihood programs have been initiated for the benefit of the people in those areas,” he told Ceylon Today.

 Another batch of 41 asylum seekers on board a multi-day fishing vessel were apprehended by the Navy off the coast of Batticaloa on Tuesday (17).

Speaking to Ceylon Today Navy Spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that the asylum seekers on board the trawler included 36 men, three women and two children. “The name of the boat is `Russel Putha’ and it is registered in the Galle area. There 38 Tamils and three Muslims among those arrested. The boat was intercepted while it was 35 nautical miles East of Batticaloa, while it was moving toward Australia. The asylum seekers have embarked on the journey from Batticaloa while the majority of the asylum seekers were also from the same area and three of them were from Valachchenai. The boat has been brought to the Trincomalee harbor, where preliminary investigations are being conducted and the group will later be handed over to the CID for further investigations. So far from 10 July to date 334 asylum seekers have been arrested,” he added.

Meanwhile the Police spokesman SP Ajith Rohana commenting on the recent increase in the number of asylum seekers attempting to travel illegally aboard fishing trawlers  told  Ceylon Today  the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is currently investigating the human smuggling operation. “There is an international link behind this operation and investigations are currently being conducted. So far this year around 510 asylum seekers have been apprehended and their attempts to reach Australia has been foiled, and among those arrested there were around 20 government servants,” he said.

LTTE behind people smuggling to  Aussie - GL SATURDAY, 22 JUNE 2013  While claiming that remnants of the defeated Tamil terrorist organisation - the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, are involved in the people-smuggling business of bringing Sri Lankan boat people to Australia, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Professor G. L. Peiris says it is absolutely clear that the people leaving Sri Lanka are not genuine refugees but economic migrants.   “These people have now been shown that they have nothing to gain by endangering their lives and using up their life savings, since they are not genuine refugees. If they were genuine refugees, why would they not go to India? It’s so much closer. . .” he had questioned.   While expressing these views during a long interview in Sydney this week, he had also requested Australia to proscribe the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, making any support to the terrorist organisation from Australia illegal. The LTTE is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Europe and North America but, perversely, not in Australia.   In the interview, Prof. Peiris had stated although the war between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE is over, Tamil Tiger networks still intimidate Tamil families in the diaspora and extort money from them, while also engaging in a range of other criminal activities. He had also said that people-smuggling has long been a key revenue raiser for the Tamil Tigers. “People-smuggling should not be seen in isolation. . . It is connected with other forms of criminal activity such as money laundering and narcotics.” (The Australian)