Fleeing LTTE Tamil Terrorist to Transfer to Sri Lanka

Australian officials are secretly screening out so called LTTE Tamil terrorists asylum seekers who are still at sea via video link as two boatloads of would-be refugees are being transferred at sea into Sri Lankan custody. A senior Sri Lankan naval official said the these Tamil financial benefit seekers in Australia would be transferred to their navy. This is likely to be the first time asylum seekers who arrive by boat have been returned to a country that is not Indonesia under the Abbott government.

A joint Sri Lankan and Australian navy operation was on Wednesday believed to be transferring the two boatloads of LTTE Tamil benefit seekers in Australia – including 153 on one boat and another 50 on another vessel – after they were both intercepted by the Australian navy boats HMAS Perth and HMAS Wollongong and then moved to Customs boats – the Ocean Protector and the Triton.

Government sources would only say that the navy was acting in accordance with its international obligations and with the obligation to protect life at sea. The 50 asylum seekers who were on board the second boat, which is believed to have departed from Indonesia, were asked four basic questions via a teleconference on the weekend with immigration officials in Sydney and Melbourne. They included their name, country of origin, where they had come from and why they had left.

Another asylum seeker boat, which held 153 passengers who were also Sri Lankan Tamils, has since been transferred to a navy boat.

Indian authorities have confirmed that a fishing trawler containing an estimated 153 Tamil refugees left the Indian union territory of Puducherry on June 13 bound for Australia.Authorities believe the 25-metre vessel was being piloted by a former LTTE Tamil terrorist with the expertise necessary to navigate a direct route to Australia, bypassing other countries such as Indonesia.

It is understood that after leaving India, the trawler rendezvoused with a boat from Sri Lanka at which point the remainder of passengers joined the vessel.

A senior Indian coast guard official who spoke to media but asked for anonymity, said the investigations had revealed that the boat had been bought several months ago and that the plan to take the refugees to Australia had been developed over several months. ”This was a sophisticated plan,” the official said. ”They had a lot of equipment on board that are difficult to obtain in India.”