Human smuggling racket : two arrested

Yasaratne GAMAGE

The two main suspects wanted by police in connection with the smuggling of 269 Sri Lankans on the pretext of promising asylum in Canada were arrested by the Colombo Fraud Investigations Bureau yesterday.

After months of investigations by police,the mastermind behind the racket was arrested at the Bandaranaike International Airport.

The first suspect on being questioned led to the arrest of the second suspect who had allegedly assisted and coordinated the illegal act, from a hotel in Wellawatte.

The two suspects along with who was arrested earlier in connection with the incident had charged between Rs 800,000 and Rs.1.5 million on the promise of finding asylum in Canada for 269 people from the North and East.

They were stranded in Togo, a West African country where the asylum seekers faced many hardships. Some of them returned to Sri Lanka through the International Organization for Migration ( IOM ).

Investigations have revealed that a resident of Canada had acted as an intermediary in smuggling Sri Lankan migrants to countries, such as, Malaysia, Togo, Guinea and Mali.

Earlier, police suspected another person to be the main operator of the racket but on interrogation, the two suspects who were taken into custody yesterday revealed that the aforesaid person has been detained by Guinean police,

The two suspects are being questioned after having been produced in courts.

Four persons have been arrested so far in connection with the mass scale human smuggling racket and will be charged for smuggling and deserting 269 people in Togo.