SRI LANKA Hundreds of Sri Lankan migrants risk their lives to reach Australia

The economic crisis is pushing the inhabitants of the island to resort to traffickers to leave the country. The trip to the Australian coast lasts about 21 days, is very unsafe and costs 4,000 dollars. Some testimonies of people who are organizing to leave.

Colombo () – Due to the economic crisis in recent weeks, more than 300 Sri Lankans have tried to reach Australia by paying large sums of money to human traffickers. The Sri Lankan Navy intercepted several fishing boats loaded with asylum seekers, but at least two boats managed to reach Australian waters.

contacted some people who tried to leave the country when certain “agents” assured them that “this is the best time to get to Australia safely” because the new Labor government “has relaxed the rules on border issues, unlike the previous liberal government. Despite constant TV news warning citizens against leaving the country illegally, and although Australia’s policy towards asylum seekers has not changed at all under the new government, Australia seems to have become the destination of choice for those who they can afford to leave the island.

A senior Navy officer explained that “these people trying to leave Sri Lanka are not poor but, on the contrary, they come from a certain economic level, because they have paid thousands of dollars.” The official pointed out that human traffickers are interested in obtaining large profits “at the expense of others”, without taking into account the safety of their passengers, because “the lives of these people are in danger during the journey.”

They do not have even basic sanitation, adequate food or drinking water. Most passengers fall ill during the journey, which can take up to 21 days from Batticaloa, on the east coast of Sri Lanka, to Christmas Island. , on the west coast of Australia.

Silva, 40, a father of two, and Jeyaraj, 52, a father of three, were fishermen from Trincomalee on the east coast and used to have a profitable business, but now they cannot fish because of a shortage of fuel for the fishing boats; their children also “have difficulty going to school because of transportation problems.” So “what else can we do in this situation? The only solution is to go to a better country, like Australia,” they told .

Pillai, 36, a shop owner in Negombo, is preparing to leave with his wife and is informed by his “agent” that at first the Australian government will not grant them “permanent residence”, but after a while they will be able to settle down. over there. He told them that this is what happened to the Nadesalingam family, who left Sri Lanka a few years ago and managed to settle in Biloela, central Queensland, after a four-year legal battle which ended in June.

People who want to leave say that the trip to Australia costs around one million Sri Lankan rupees, equivalent to about 4 thousand dollars. Some have borrowed from family and friends to pay off “boat owners”.

In July, an Australian Border Force vessel intercepted a boatload of Sri Lankan migrants and escorted it to the port of Colombo, where it arrived on 5 August. The ship was carrying 46 people from Valaichchenai, Batticaloa, Pasikuda, Ampara, Bibile and Muthur.