Processing problems
Two groups totalling around 50 would-be Sri Lankan asylum seekers have arrived at the offshore processing centres in Papua New Guinea, but are unlikely to provide a bottleneck for the dozens more expected. The number of detainees during the last two months has topped 556, with total numbers since June estimated at around 1,400, showing the seriousness of the problem and the inability of authorities, so far, to stem it.
Navy Spokesperson Kosala Warnakulasuriya had earlier told media that the Sri Lanka Navy did not have the resources to check the flow of people attempting to sail to Australia. He had endorsed the Government view that the Australian Government should send back detained Sri Lankan refugees and do more to discourage people from attempting to illegally land on Australian shores.
In his view, opening up offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea alone will not end the issue of human trafficking since the refugees will believe they will have better living conditions in Papua New Guinea than in their villages in the north and east and other parts of Sri Lanka. This is indeed a dire statement given that Sri Lanka is enjoying its third year of peace, but states the obvious in terms of the high cost of living that has not really paid the peace dividend to the masses.
According to reports, the proposed offshore centres in Manus Island are not liveable in their present state. The shelters are run-down and termite-infested and surrounded by overgrown bush land. Furthermore, the Australian Government will have to fork out a hefty A$ 1.8 billion to house 2,100 people over a period of five years. Meanwhile, a senior United Nations official warned that re-opening offshore detention centres for migrants and asylum-seekers arriving in Australia by sea could result in human rights violations.
It is therefore clear that the Government as well as all other stakeholders need to combine and find an effective and multifaceted method to help people not be fooled into skipping the country for wrongful reasons.
The fact that Sri Lanka needs to tighten its human smuggling and asylum seeker legislations is an obvious point. Unscrupulous people who dupe others into parting with their savings on false promises of a plentiful life need to be punished severely. Yet, at the same time, there must be economic opportunities made available to them so that their reasons for leaving are no longer valid.
Awareness of the danger could be one aspect that needs to be driven home, but the ordeal they will face if they reach their destination must be made known to them as well. Perhaps the most important point is that they must be provided with security and the assurance that law and order will protect them, thus allowing them to be productive citizens in their own country.
Given that public officials are also among the numbers detained, the time has come to accept that the asylum seekers issue has a deep economic facet that cannot be explained away by international conspiracies or human smugglers connected to the LTTE. Latest statistics from the Central Bank also back this idea with inflation nearing double digits for the first time in three-and-a-half years. Giving economic returns to the majority of people is the biggest challenge and ultimately the best solution to this exodus.
