Stemming the exodus

Friday, 12 October 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

THE Navy on Thursday detained 112 would-be asylum seekers bound for Australia, despite attempts by officials to choke the exodus, showing that the issue continues to remain largely unaddressed.

The trawler named ‘Shantha Anthoni-2’ with 91 Tamils, 14 Sinhalese and seven Muslims on board was intercepted by a Naval patrol craft attached to the Western Naval Command off Sri Lanka’s north western seas. Among the arrested persons are 103 men, a woman and eight male children. They were handed over to the Police for further investigations.

Numbers for the last two months have exceeded over 1,000 people arrested. Despite exact statistics not being available, it is likely that at least 5,000 or more people have been taken into custody during this year and the numbers are unlikely to reduce within the next two months.

Eighteen Sri Lankans voluntarily returned from Australia last month, but awareness of the true situation in obtaining asylum remains weak. Even though repeated attempts have been made to educate people, there is a sense of complacency with the Government regarding these people who are mostly economic refugees.

Government Spokesman and Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella has said that Sri Lanka would consider a return policy including reduced punishments for people who are returned, but no talks have resumed between the two countries so far. This means that the many hundreds of Sri Lankans being processed offshore are likely to remain there until returned by the Australian Government.

Earlier Australian authorities reported that over the previous months, asylum seeker numbers have trebled, hitting higher digits than in 2009, when Sri Lanka ended a three-decade conflict. Already, over the first half of this year, 1,346 asylum seekers claiming to have come from Sri Lanka have arrived in Australian territory.

It is therefore clear that the Government as well as all other stakeholders need to combine and find an effective and multifaceted method to help people not be fooled into skipping the country for wrongful reasons.

The fact that Sri Lanka needs to tighten its human smuggling and asylum seeker legislations is an obvious point. Unscrupulous people who dupe others into parting with their savings on false promises of a plentiful life need to be punished severely. Yet, at the same time, there must be economic opportunities made available to them so that their reasons for leaving are no longer valid.

Awareness of the danger could be one aspect that needs to be driven home, but the ordeal they will face if they reach their destination must be made known to them as well. Perhaps the most important point is that they must be provided with security and the assurance that law and order will protect them, thus allowing them to be productive citizens in their own country.

Given that public officials are also among the numbers detained, the time has come to accept that the asylum seekers issue has a deep economic facet that cannot be explained away by international conspiracies or human smugglers connected to the LTTE.

Latest statistics from the Central Bank also back this idea, with inflation nearing double digits for the first time in three-and-a-half years. Giving economic returns to the majority of people is the biggest challenge and ultimately the best solution to this exodus.