Waves of Sri Lankan asylum seekers arriving
A SURGE in the number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat over the past three weeks - treble the number that arrived over all of last year - has lifted arrival numbers above those in 2009, when the country was gripped by brutal civil war.
Already, over the first half of 2012, 1346 asylum seekers claiming to have come from Sri Lanka have arrived in Australian territory, more than six times the 211 ''irregular maritime arrivals'' in all of last year.