Sri Lanka’s navy on Tuesday seized four fishing trawlers carrying 142 illegal migrants heading for Australia, a spokesman said. The boats were detected off the island’s southern coast while they were moving eastward in the direction of Australia, navy spokesman Athula Senarath said. “The passengers had paid large sums of money to people smugglers to [...]
Australian police Monday investigated a riot by 150 asylum-seekers at a remote island detention centre after inmates reportedly attacked each other with pool cues, broomsticks and tree branches, wounding 37. Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the mass brawl broke out after an argument between Afghans and Sri Lankans on Christmas Island, Australia’s main centre for [...]
The United Nations has welcomed the decision by Sri Lanka’s government to announce the release of the remaining 130,000 Tamils kept in detention camps for the last six months. About 250,000 people fled the final bloody phase of the civil war between the government and separatist Tamil Tigers. They were ultimately housed in government-run camps [...]
The remaining 56 Sri Lankans on board an Australian customs ship anchored off an Indonesian island are expected to disembark on Wednesday. Indonesian officials say they have agreed to be taken to an Australian-funded detention centre in Tanjung Pinang on Bintan island, where 22 others from the Oceanic Viking are being processed, the ABC reports. [...]
Twenty-two Sr i Lankan asylum seekers voluntarily left an Australian customs ship in Indonesian waters on Friday after Canberra offered assurances of swift resettlement to end a politically sensitive standoff. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s approval rating has been dented by the impasse over the 78 ethnic Tamils, who have up until now refused to [...]
SRI Lanka has dismissed any suggestion Tamils are oppressed within its borders, saying those aboard the Oceanic Viking were drawn to Australia by its “magnetism” rather than the need for asylum. Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UN Palitha Kohona last night denied the Tamils aboard the vessel had started their journey from his country, describing [...]
The Australian foreign minister, Stephen Smith, is to meet senior Sri Lankan leaders in Colombo to discuss ways of tackling people-smuggling. His visit comes amid a stand-off in Indonesia involving nearly 80 Tamil asylum seekers. They are refusing to leave an Australian vessel that rescued them last month. The Australian authorities say the end of [...]
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith heads to Sri Lanka on Monday as the standoff involving a group of asylum seekers on board the Oceanic Viking enters its fourth week. The 78 Sri Lankans are refusing to get off the Australian Customs ship because they do not want to be taken to Indonesia. Mr Smith has [...]
The Sri Lankan Government has said that the leader of a boatload of asylum-seekers held in Indonesia on their way to Australia, Alex, is a known people-smuggler, who had been previously deported from Canada. Alex is the spokesman for 255 Sri Lankans, whose boat was detained last month and they remain moored at the port [...]
SRI Lanka’s immigration chief says Canberra and Colombo have talked about bringing unskilled migrant workers to Australia, apparently in an attempt to stop the exodus of boatpeople. Sri Lanka’s Immigration Commissioner, P.B. Abeykoon, told The Australian yesterday he had raised the issue as a solution to breaking the asylum deadlock. But a spokesman for Immigration [...]
Several of a group of 76 Sri Lankan asylum seekers picked up off the Canadian coast last month have ties to the Tamil Tiger rebels and could pose a security risk, officials said Tuesday. The Canadian government told an immigration hearing that the “Ocean Lady” freighter used to transport the migrants has been linked to [...]
Immigration officials are alleging that trace amounts of explosives were found aboard a cargo ship that smuggled 76 Sri Lankans to Canada’s West Coast last month, a lawyer representing some of the men said on Monday. Lee Rankin said the “slight bit of residue found on a couple of items,” together with news clippings linking [...]
The Australian government has announced plans to significantly expand a detention centre on Christmas Island to cope with the influx of asylum seekers. The capacity will be increased to more than 2000 beds from the original level of 1200. The government said it was in response to a surge in arrivals, particularly from Sri Lanka. [...]
Indonesia says the 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers moored in a boat off Sumatra must co-operate with authorities over identity checks or risk expulsion. The Sri Lankans were intercepted in Indonesian waters eleven days ago while trying to reach Australia. Australia and Indonesia agreed to a deal last week which in principle would see the [...]
Sanga praises armed forces
Norway’s capital, Oslo, hit by deadly blast, shootings
Beyonce in see-through underwear!
Wedding bells ring to Daminda, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s son
world’s shortest man
Jet man flies over Grand Canyon
New closer aerial views of wrecked reactor in Japan