Rescued 120 Sri Lankans arrested

07 Apr, 2013

One hundred twenty Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka who were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard from a stranded vessel in the sea yesterday, have been and arrested.
An NDTV report said that the refugees, mostly from camps in Tamil Nadu, were illegally heading to Australia, but their vessel developed a snag in the Bay of Bengal near Nagapattinam.
The vessel had set off into the sea on Friday night.
One of the refugees, Kokilavania, said: “We never expected this to happen. We thought if we go to Australia, we would get citizenship; at least our children would get a good life.”
Last year, there were several instances of Lankan Tamil refugees leaving Tamil Nadu for Australia to seek asylum. The Australian government had warned that those arriving by boat would not be given asylum.

Recommended For You

Speaker orders Prisons Department to allow Jayasekara to attend Parliament

By Easwaran Rutnam Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena today ordered the Prisons Department to allow Parliamentarian Premalal Jayasekara to attend Parliament. The Speaker told Parliament today that Jayasekara cannot be blocked from attending Parliament sessions. The Prisons Department had earlier been ordered to allow Parliamentarian Premalal Jayasekara to attend Parliament. However Ratnapura district MP Premalal Jayasekara had not been brought to Parliament. The Parliament Secretariat said re

28 Aug, 2020

Prison guard, Navy personnel arrested with heroin, cannabis

A prison guard and two Navy personnel have been arrested at two separate locations with heroin and cannabis. The prison guard attached to the Colombo Remand prison was arrested with 94g of heroin in Borella. The suspect was arrested based on a tip-off received by the Western Province Crimes Division last night. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the suspect had allegedly carried drugs into prisons for a long period. The 49-year-old resident of Borella was produced before the Malig

28 Aug, 2020

Australia helps Sri Lanka fight organised crime

The Government of Australia has extended its support to Sri Lanka to face global threats of terrorism, organised crime and narcotics trafficking. Several Australian supplied hand-held Chemical Detection Devices were presented to Acting Inspector General of Police, C. D. Wickramaratne today (27) by Australian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka David Holly and Australian Federal Police Detective Superintendent Rob Wilson. At the presentation ceremony, High Commissioner Holly said Australia expresses

27 Aug, 2020

Colombo Gazette is a leading news and entertainment website, covering stories related to Sri Lanka. The content consists of text based news, photos and videos and is linked to social media websites including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to provide a wider coverage for its stories.