Category Archives: people smugglers

Analysing Mathusa Sivajalingham’s testimony as Tamil asylum seeker

Michael Roberts

Dinouk Columbage of the Sunday Leader revealed commendable initiative on an earlier occasion in meeting and interviewing a Lankan involved in people smuggling. He has recently met and interviewed a Tamil woman, Mathusah Sivajalingham who had been among those on a trawler with asylum-seekers which had been impounded by the SL Navy. Her testimony, supported by the concerns of another Tamil lady whose son had reached Christmas Island, provides invaluable information on facets of the migration process and particularly about the motivations of Tamil Lankans seeking greener pastures today in 2012. Continue reading

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Mathusha Sivajalingham: a failed boat person

Dinouk Columbage, in The Sunday Leader, 5 August 2012, where the title reads “Post War – The Cries Of The Desperate And Destitute”

 Overcrowded and often unseaworthy vessels are the only options for the hundreds looking to flee the poverty in Sri Lanka ‘ –caption and Pic from Sunday Leader  … but note that this boat appears to be a multi-day trawler with capability of the sort exemplified in the article by Bernardo Brown and in the details surrounding my presentation of the saga of Mahesh Pushpakumara; Web Editor

Mathusha Sivajalingham, a 36-year-old mother of two boys (aged 5 and 8), is a victim of the three decade long war. The conflict saw her husband killed, her shop and home destroyed and for two years she and her children lived in several different IDP camps. In the face of abject poverty and a bleak future, Sivajalingham took her children and attempted to migrate to Australia aboard one of the growing number of illegal boats. Her attempt was a failure and she is now working in Colombo as a street cleaner. Continue reading

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A Flourishing Bibliographical Tree: Tamil Migration, Asylum-Seekers and Australia

 Alex Kuhendrarajah of Merak notoriety –courtesy of Australian  courtesy of aus.com.au

NOTE that I am constantly augmenting this listing and adding new items so readers would do well to come back to the fresher editions: Web Editor.

Allard, Tom 2009Asylum seekers stage snap hunger strike,” 16 October 2009, http://www.smh.com.au/world/asylum-seekers-stage-snap-hunger-strike-20091015-gz93.html

Allard, Tom 2010 “Tamils’ spokesman Alex jumps ship,” SMH, 2 March 2010, http://www.smh.com.au/world/tamils-spokesman-alex-jumps-ship-20100301-pdju.html.

Amunugama, Sarath [quoted in news item] 2011 foreign remittances the lifeline of Sri Lanka’s economy,” Sunday Observer, 30 January 2011, http://thuppahis.com/2011/01/30/foreign-remittances-the-lifeline-of-sri-lankas-economy-says-sarath-amunugama/

BBC 2012 “[Lost at Sea! Some Missing Tamils]” 23 April 2012, reprint in http://thuppahis.com/2012/04/23/lost-at-sea-some-missing-tamils/

Bell, Stewart 2011 [“Sun Sea– one of its journalist Tamil migrants granted entry into Canada,”] 5 February 2011, http://thuppahis.com/2011/02/05/sun-sea-one-of-its-journalist-tamil-migrants-granted-entry-into-canada/.

Black, Sophie 2009 “Meet Alex and Brindha: a media savvy bunch of boat people,”http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/10/16/meet-alex-and-brindha-a-media-savvy-bunch-of-boat-people/.

Bolt, Andrew 2009 “How the Greens deceive on boat people,” 2 November 2009, http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hew_the_greens_deceive_on_boat_people.

Bolt, Andrew 2009 “It’s Rudd’s fatal shore,” Herald Sun, 6 November 2009, http://heraldsun.com.au/opinion/it’s-rudd’s-fatal-shore/story-e6frfhgf-1225794867198

Brown, Bernardo 2012 “Bernardo Brown’s brief note on migration networks in the Negombo region, 1980s-2012,” http://thuppahis.com/2012/07/25/bernardo-browns-brief-note-on-migration-networks-in-the-negombo-region-1980s-2012/.

Burnside, Julian “Australian leader Abbott ignorant on boat arrivals,” The Age, 9 April 2010, http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/abbott-ignorant-on-boat-arrivals-20100408-ruyl.html.

Callick, Rowan 2010 “Sri Lanka urges hard line on Tamil asylum-seekers,” Australian, 18 Oct. 2010. Continue reading

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Again! Two Significant items in THE AUSTRALIAN on asylum seeker issues

I.                  Asylum system flooded but deportations slow to a trickle ….. by Paul Maley & Lauren Wilson, in The Australian, 31 July 2012

 Nicola Roxon

DEPORTATIONS of failed asylum-seekers have dried up as new arrivals flood the system in record numbers, causing a backlog the opposition warns will take a decade to clear.  Despite calls by foreign governments, including Sri Lanka, to return bogus refugees as a deterrent, fewer than 2 per cent of the 21,000 asylum-seekers who have arrived since 2008 have been deported. Head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Australia Richard Towle said yesterday that there must be “meaningful consequences” for asylum-seekers whose refugee claims failed, arguing returns were essential to the integrity of any asylum system.

“You need a fair and accurate asylum process that identifies refugees and the return of those who don’t need protection,” he told The Australian. “The overall integrity of the asylum system needs both of those in play – the rights given to those who are refugees and the return of those who are not. Without returns, the integrity of the whole system is undermined.” Continue reading

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Dramatic mid-sea transfer ends freedom run

Amanda Hodge, on the SLNS Samudura  courtesy of The Australian, 30 July 2012

 28 failed ‘boat people’ are transferred from a French Tanker to a Lankna naval ship in mid-sea after their boat floundered – Pic courtesy of Amanda Hodge and the Australian

UNDER a clammy half-moon, the Sri Lankan navy ship Samudura inches towards the intimidating beams of a 330m super-tanker until the two hulls collide with a gentle thud. The SLNS Samudura is less than one-fifth the size of the Euronav, but it was the navy that was flexing its muscles early yesterday as it successfully transferred 28 failed asylum-seekers from the merchant vessel in a dramatic midnight operation at sea. Continue reading

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Allegation: ‘Tortured’ Tamil put on a plane back to Sri Lanka

Amanda Hodge and Stuart Rintoul, in The Australian, 26 July 2012 … with “Allegation” being a web editor addition

A TAMIL asylum-seeker accused of links with the vanquished Tamil Tigers has been deported, despite being the subject of an appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and a pending High Court judgment that could have had an impact on his appeal rights.

 Pic from Australian online with note: “The Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul said lawyers had too little time to get an injunction preventing the deportation. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen Source: The Daily Telegraph.” Continue reading

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Bernardo Brown’s brief note on migration networks in the Negombo region, 1980s-2012

Bernardo Brown[i] in email to Roberts, 24 July 2012

Several things come to mind reading these articles. [ii]

One of them is that a visit to Negombo can easily reveal the long history of people smuggling that exists in the region and the importance of the “migratory triangulation” that exists here. I know that at least for the last decade Pakistanis and Afghanis have flown to Katunayake to be promptly taken to safe houses in the Negombo area where they waited for their opportunity to be smuggled to Europe. Continue reading

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Boat People to Australia: A Comment on The Social Architects’ Survey and Twist on the Tale

Michael Roberts, 24 July 2012

An anonymous syndicate named The Social Architects conducted an investigation into the circumstances encouraging Sri Lankan Tamils to migrate from Sri Lanka in trawlers and other boats in order to seek illegal entry into Australia. In the context of the recent spate of boats reaching Australia and others stopped and seized by the SL authorities, this is both a welcome and enterprising move. Whether the analysis is rigorous or perceptive is another question and readers are directed to the Groundviews blogs for some reactions. Continue reading

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Over the Top from Down Under: A Boat Person’s Song

I cross ocean, one way trip,

pay people smuggler one big tip

Green man, his name Bob Brown,

he welcomes all of us to town

He big man in Government now I think.

He sends us off to Centrelink

Welfare say,  “You come no more, we send cash right to your door”

Welfare cheques, they make you wealthy!

Medicare, it keep you healthy

By and by, I get plenty money

Thanks to you, you Aussie dummy!

Write to friends in motherland.

Tell them  “come fast as you can…”

“Before all is changed to Abbott plan”

They come in turbans and Toyota trucks

And buy big house with welfare bucks!

They come here, we live together.

More welfare cheques, it gets better!

Fourteen families, they moving in,

But neighbour patience wearing thin.

Finally, Aussie guy moves away.

Now I buy his house, then say,

“Find more immigrants for house to rent.”

And in the yard I put a tent.

Everything is very good,

And soon we own the neighbourhood.

We have hobby, it’s called breeding.

Welfare pay for baby feeding.

Kids need dentist?    Wives need pills?

We get free!    We got no bills!

Australians crazy!    They work all year,

To keep the welfare running here.

We think Australia darn good place.

Too darn good for Aussie race!

If they not like us, they can scram.

Lots of space in Afghanistan!

PS: all we now need is Desmond Kelly singing this lyric to the tune of suranganita malu genaavaa  … or maybe HAI HOI BABI ACHCHIGEY … Continue reading

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“Italy Rajan” and other people smugglers in India: their Package Deals

Courtesy of the Nation,  Today’s News and The Asian Age

Pic from Aus.com.au

Human trafficking in Sri Lankan Tamils came to notice in India first with the arrival of Arumainayagam Soundarajan aka Rajan aka Italy Rajan, in Tamil Nadu in June 2009. He had been sending asylum seekers from the coasts of Sri Lanka earlier and had to flee when the competitors turned the heat on and the security agencies in Colombo sniffed out his trail. He landed in Rameswaram by a boat and launched business right away, taking advantage of the clamour for life abroad among the restive refugees in the Tamil Nadu camps. Until he came, human smuggling was not so much tested in the state. Continue reading

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