By Dinasena Rathugamage in The Island, Dec 5, 2023
Acting on a request from the Indian security authorities, Sri Lankan police are conducting investigations in respect of seven Sri Lankans who reached Dhanushkodi from Mannar on 25 Nov., seeking asylum in India.
They paid Rs 300,000 for their passage across the Palk Bay that took about three hours. They were dropped at the Third Sandbar near the Dhanushkodi islet in Rameswaram by a boat operator in the early hours of Nov 27. The boatman returned to Mannar.
Indian media reports said that following the completion of routine questioning the Indian authorities took all seven, identified as Nagaraja (42), Vanithini (38), Anojan (13), Kajeevan (9), Tanushika (4), Ajanthan (18) and Keesalin (17) to a special detention centre and took action to check with Sri Lanka police as to their antecedents.
Preliminary inquiries revealed that the seven persons belonged to one family.
According to Indian media the family told Rameswaram police that they were struggling to make ends meet due to the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. As they could not repay their mounting debts, they decided to flee the nation and reach Indian shores.
They would be shifted to the Mandampam refugee camp only after obtaining clearance reports from the Lankan police.
It’s been noted that numerous Sri Lankan criminals and individuals evading the law have entered Indian shores posing as refugees. Therefore, Indian authorities will grant asylum seeker status only after reviewing clearance reports provided by the Sri Lankan police, sources said.
As of Sunday (03), from Jan 1, a total of 295 Sri Lankans have sought asylum in India by arriving there via boats this year, and 26 of them were subsequently returned to Sri Lanka.https://island.lk/economic-crisis-driving-more-and-more-lankans-to-seek-asylum-in-india-295-so-far-this-year/
