Chennai: Australian immigration minister, Scott Morrison, revealed that the 157 Tamil asylum seekers on board a customs vessel have been brought to Australia and he reiterated that none will settle in the island continent. Mr Morrison told reporters in Sydney that the decision to send back the Sri Lankan refugees who came out of India.
He made the announcement after negotiations with the Indian government, which has now sought consular access to the Tamils with a view to facilitate their return to India. Mr Scott Morrison, who is handling border protection issues, met the union home minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi last week and discussed issues relating to illegal migration. During the meet he told the minister that a boat with 157 persons on board was seized by the Australian authorities during the last week of June.
The announcement from Sydney comes in the wake of assurance of the Indian home ministry that India, as a matter of policy, does not support any kind of illegal migration either into its own territory or illegal migration of its citizens to foreign territories.
The Indian side also sought consular access and emphasized the importance of handling such cases in a legal and humanitarian manner ensuring that no harm befalls upon anyone, especially minor children.
Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s external affairs minister G L Peris had also pleaded with Tamil refugees in Australia who fled the Island nation during war to return home. Lankan external affairs minister G.L. Peiris had told media that Sri Lanka is now perfectly stable, with an economic boom in the once devastated northern Tamil regions.
“Sri Lanka is today a land at peace, it is a perfectly stable society. The northern province is developing at about 22 per cent, when the average population of the country is between 6 or 7 per cent,” Professor Peiris told reporters.
It may be noted that Peris called on his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in Delhi mid July and discussed issues related to asylum seekers. It is believed that the controversial vessel left Pondicherry on June 11 and was intercepted by Australian border patrol on June 29.
Sources in the foreigners division in the ministry of home affairs said that since mid July, both the ministry of home affairs and external affairs ministry were working in tandem and said that external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj was also present during the high level meetings in which Australian and Sri Lankan foreign ministers discussed issues related to refugees and fishermen.
