Insecurity, jobs drive Sri Lanka's boat people

AFP – Sri Lankan fishing boats in the water in a harbour at Beruwela in southern Sri Lanka. Fishing boats have …
by Amal Jayasinghe Amal Jayasinghe – Thu Oct 22, 1:33 am ET
COLOMBO (AFP) – Fear of persecution and a lack of jobs at home are driving thousands of Sri Lankans to risk perilous boat rides to developed countries, according to officials and politicians.
Two separate boats carrying a total of over 300 illegal immigrants believed to be members of Sri Lanka's minority Tamil community were detained last week, apparently headed for Australia and Canada.
A sizeable number of Tamils, who are often treated with suspicion by the military and civilian authorities here, try to seek asylum in Western capitals.
Those who fail and are sent home often resort to paying up to 40,000 dollars to people smugglers to get them back overseas.
"Most Tamils want to leave the country because they do not feel safe here," said pro-government Tamil politician Dharmalingam Sithadthan. "But there are also a lot of others who leave for economic reasons.
"With the kind of money they pay agents, they can easily start a small business here," he said. "But they would rather sell all their jewellery and property to raise money to go abroad."
An opposition Tamil politician and human rights activist, Mano Ganeshan, said Tamils still lived in fear following the final defeat in May of Tamil Tiger separatists who had been fighting a decades-old armed insurgency.
He said the military detention of some 250,000 Tamils who survived the final phase of fighting had heightened fears among the minority community in this Sinhalese-majority country.
"Some of those who are escaping in boats may be those who managed to get out of the detention camps," Ganeshan said. "Tamils feel vulnerable even after the end of the war. That is why they want to get out of the country."
Favoured destinations include Australia and Canada which have large Tamil communities.
Five years ago, Sri Lanka became something of a regional hub for people smuggling after the government extended a visas-on-arrival policy to South Asian nationals.
Thousands of men from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan came here looking for fishing trawlers that offered illegal access to Europe and Australia for 1,500 to 3,000 dollars a head.
At that time, as well as Tamils, Sinhalese economic migrants seeking better jobs were also willing to gamble everything on the chance of a new life overseas.
But the smuggling operations dropped off sharply when the Sri Lankan navy stepped up its coastal surveillance after government forces resumed fighting the Tamil rebels from 2006.
Nowadays, most illegal migrants from Sri Lanka start their journey by flying to Singapore and then crossing into Malaysia or Thailand where the precarious boat voyage begins.
Sri Lanka's navy maintained that neither of the vessels stopped last week had originated from here.
"We have a fairly good system of surveillance and we can confirm that neither of these two vessels set off from Sri Lanka," spokesman Captain D.K.P. Dassanayake told AFP.