Wednesday, June 05, 2013
An Australian delegation led by the Australia's High commissioner to Sri Lanka His Excellency Robyn Mudie met the Secretary, Ministry of Defence and Urban Development Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and held a roundtable discussion on people smuggling legislation today (4th June) at the Ministry premises.
Secretary, Ministry of Justice Mrs. Kamalini De Silva was also present at the discussion.
Addressing the current issues of illegal migration, people smuggling and law enforcement, Mr. Rajapaksa reiterated that the corporation amongst the law enforcement agencies of respective countries is very important in harmonizing a legal frame work.
He emphasised on importance of having enhanced mechanism of bilateral and Regional Corporation to deal with the problem in a comprehensive way.
Speaking at the meeting Secretary Defence said that," people smuggling has become a lucrative criminal activity which exploits the aspirations of people in developing countries to see a better life for them selves in more prosperous nations".
Further addressing the issue he briefed that," these victims of human trafficking quite often sell every thing they have and hand over all their wealth to such illegal doers". Most often these countries would refuse the right of stay and house them temporarily whilst trying to repatriate back to their original countries". He added.
Secretary Defence also emphasised that," I can say with confidence, in case of Sri Lanka absolutely there is no any justification for people to leave this country illegally". Mr. Rajapaksa briefed that these people are a segment of economic migrants. He also recalled the effectiveness of previous meetings held on this issue.
Senior officials from Australian AG's Department and Australian High Commission, Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, Legal Advisors representing Department of Immigration and Emigration, officials of AG's Department and Ministry officials were seated at the roundtable.
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