Around 150 Sri Lankans headed for Australiaby sea were apprehended in Kollam by Kerala police and 27 of them, includingsix children, were Tuesday sent to judicial custody under the Foreigners Actfor not having travel documents, police said.
The 150 Sri Lankan nationals were headed for an 18-day boattrip to Australia from Kollam.
They had arrived in Kollam from various refugee camps inTamil Nadu. With the area populated with numerous fishing boats, the SriLankans were hoping to make their get away unnoticed, Kollam Assistant Superintendentof Police Thomson Jose told IANS.
"When their boat was held, we were surprised to seethat more than 100 people were stacked in the lower part of the boat, wherenormally the fish catch is kept. Some cooked food was also there and it wasmeant for their onward journey to Australia," Jose told IANS.
Jose said "this is a classic case of cheating by agentsand middlemen and it's these innocent who will now have to suffer".
"Today (Tuesday) a court here sent 27 of them, sixchildren, three women and 18 men, to judicial custody under the Registration ofForeigners Act as they did not possess necessary travel documents. The rest ofthem had proper documents and hence they will now be sent back to their refugeecamps in Tamil Nadu," he added.
However, no agents or middlemen have been taken intocustody.
The police after preliminary inquiries have not been able tolink these people with any LTTE links.
"The whole thing came to notice when a group of SriLankans was seen waiting for a boat and the locals reported this to police. Wetook them into custody, and after interrogation we found that they were waitingfor a boat to pick them up and join the rest of their countrymen. Soon with thehelp of Coastal police the main boat was seized," said Jose.
Kollam is considered a safe place for these touts and agentsto take innocent Sri Lankans for a ride.
Many have paid more than Rs.50,000 to unscrupulous agentswho promised to take them to their dream land, Australia, on a fishing boat.
According to police, one reason why these people undertookthis risk was the inhuman conditions faced by them in the refugee camps andmany pleaded with the police not to send them back from where they came.
"We did not bother to find out about the consequencesof the journey because our only aim was to reach Australia," said arefugee.
"Now we will take steps to see that those with refugeestatus are sent back to the refugee camps," said Jose.