A crucial measure used by the Australian government to stop human trafficking in Sri Lanka can be readily avoided by offenders, and it is making fishermen who are already struggling due to the nation’s economic crisis pay a monthly charge.
Official sources have also disclosed to the ABC that they are looking into claims of people smuggling to Australia made against the brother of a Sri Lankan government MP.
According to experts, the revelations demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the solutions proposed by the Australian government to address the problem.
More than 1,000 Sri Lankans have attempted to reach Australia by boat this year, with many paying people traffickers thousands of dollars to travel on fishing trawlers for weeks across choppy waters.
The Australian Border Force intercepted more illicit boats in June 2022 than at any time since 2013. They were all Sri Lankan.
The economic crisis in Sri Lanka, which has cut off millions of people from essential services, is mostly to blame for the sharp surge.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil visited Colombo and donated supplies to local authorities to “fight people smuggling” after the ABC reported on the new influx of Sri Lankan asylum applicants in June.
The Sri Lankan government was provided with 4,200 GPS trackers by the Australian government to monitor fishing trawlers, which are the vessels utilized by people traffickers.
The trackers, known as vessel monitoring systems (VMS), can be taken off, according to fishermen who spoke to the ABC.
“This isn’t working. Most of the people when they are going to immigrate illegally, they will remove the fuse from the VMS system and they’re going,” said Nawaz Essa, fisherman and former head of the Boat Owners’ Association.
“Most of the people are immigrating illegally to Australia. They want to get that good life in Australia.
“The economic crisis is going up in Sri Lanka, each and every day the prices [are] going up … so most of the people they want to save their family and their children.”
An Australian Border Force spokesman said the government’s policy was “steadfast”.
