Human smuggling and S. Asia's conflicts

With disconcerting rapidity boatloads of people are going missing or ending in watery graves in the seas off Australia in particular and the writing is on the wall that desperate people in increasing numbers are seeking to flee the lands of their birth in our part of the world. The world knows for a fact that not all these unfortunate persons are political asylum seekers in the traditional sense of the phrase. Very many of them are desperately on the look out for 'greener pastures' in lands across the seas but we are 'diminished' by these tragic deaths, nevertheless, and hope they had never occurred.

A couple of weeks back a boat tragedy occurred with almost 200 persons of Asian origin aboard in close proximity to the Christmas Islands in Australia's neighbourhood but it was established that there were no Sri Lankans among the casualties. Likewise, a couple of days back another boat tragedy occurred in the same region but in this instance too, there has been no evidence to date that Lankans were among the casualties.

But it, of course, does not follow from these observations that Sri Lankans have not been among those who have been smuggled abroad in the past. It would amount to stating the obvious to disclose that refugees of Sri Lankan origin are abounding in the thousands in some seemingly more prosperous Western countries. As we write, the news is that the Canadian authorities are going ahead with prosecuting six men charged with smuggling hundreds of Tamils of Lankan origin into Canada in a 'rickety ship' in August 2010 and one of the accused is believed to be hiding away here in Sri Lanka.

Over the years the lid has been blown off major human smuggling rackets in this part of the world and we now know for certain that a considerable number of the persons being thus smuggled abroad are not political asylum seekers fleeing persecution at home but are 'economic refugees' looking to improve their material prospects in Western metropolises and other ports of call with seemingly entrancing possibilities.

Accordingly, it would be misleading to characterize very many of these persons who apparently brave the high seas as being among the politically persecuted.

In the late seventies and during the decade of the eighties, the 'Afghan Boat People' hit the headlines in the wake of the prolonged military conflict in Afghanistan, occasioned by the Mujahedin backlash against the presence of foreign military forces in that country. In those years there indisputably was a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the condition of the displaced persons in that country was to a large extent heart-rending.

Likewise, conditions in Sri Lanka too, prior to May 2009, gave the more wily sections the opportunity of smuggling themselves into the relatively prosperous climes of the West by citing the situation back home. However, it was only a matter of time before even some Western governments discovered that very many of these 'asylum seekers' were, in fact, economic refugees; or a species of 'rebels without a cause.'

It is also now very well known that human smuggling is a very lucrative business with sections of the LTTE rump emerging as top specialists in this money-spinning clandestine operation. Not all of those seeking entry to the West from this country are, therefore, asylum seekers and cannot be classed along with, for instance, the 'Boat People' of times past. We hope the UN agencies concerned, for instance, would intensify awareness-raising on these matters among Western governments and publics for there is no justification for hearts to bleed, for, very many of these 'refugees' are fortune-seekers.

Nevertheless, there is certainly no justification for any section of our citizenry to seek refuge abroad on the grounds that there are conditions of conflict back home now.

The scourge of terror is no more and every section of the Lankan populace is warmly invited to remain in Sri Lanka and do everything within their capabilities to make this country prosper. This, the world knows, and our wish is that Western governments, in particular, would be discreet in handling those claiming to flee persecution.

However, the irony is that sections of the West are creating conditions in Sri Lanka's neighbourhood which would help breed refugees and asylum seekers. The point needs to be considered that if there is no military involvement on the part of the West in parts of South Asia, there would be no grounds for human smuggling and connected iniquities.