The Australian can reveal that Australia’s intelligence agencies have identified the official, who has a high profile and is known to be close to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The agencies believe he is responsible for authorising numerous boats in the past 10 months, fuelling the surge of asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka that has threatened to overwhelm Australia’s detention system.

The intelligence assessments about the figure, whom The Australian has chosen not to identify, are widely known at senior levels of the Gillard government.

It is understood options were canvassed as to how to handle the allegations before Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s visit to Sri Lanka in December. Senator Carr never raised the matter with the Sri Lankan government, and Canberra has been pleased with the sharp reduction in boats from the nation in recent weeks.

The allegations against the official drew a flat denial from the Sri Lankan government, with Colombo’s senior envoy to Australia, Bandula Jayasekara, describing them yesterday as “unbelievable, ridiculous, and mischievous”.

While official corruption is a common feature of the people-smuggling industry across the world, the involvement of such a senior member of the government would appear to be unprecedented. The assessment inside the Australian government is that the official is “complicit” in people-smuggling, posing a serious obstacle to Australia’s attempts to stop the flow of boats from Sri Lanka.

Australia’s intelligence agencies believe it would be impossible for so many asylum-seeker boats to leave the island’s shores without the individual’s direct involvement.

Via http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/blow-to-asylum-battle-as-intelligence-links-sri-lankan-official-to-smugglers/story-fn9hm1gu-1226566319961

Quoting an Australian source further demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of TAS.

Do you know that Australia have at least granted refugee status to six Human Smugglers? The whole refugee debate in Australia has bee hijacked by the bleeding hearts with stories fed by sections of Tamil Diaspora.

Do you know the story of Alex Kuhendrarajah?

Out of curiosity, TSA recently travelled to a prominent departure area on on the border between Jaffna and Kilinochchi. While TSA did not travel directly to Vettilaikkerni (because that would have raised suspicions), we did travel to Chundikulum Birds Sanctuary, a site near Vettilaikkerni that is open to a certain type of tourist in search of a very unique experience. (NB: We were also near Kaddaikadu, an adjacent village which has also been cited as a point of departure).

The adventure was… interesting, along the byway from the A9 to Chundikulum (in a span of less than 20 kilometres), TSA counted 17 military checkpoints, 3 “mini-camps” and 3 major (i.e. large) military camps. We also inadvertently witnessed several hundred (perhaps more) Navy personnel parading in the street with Navy flags. Upon arriving near the water, we ran into another checkpoint.

Now, while it is clear the military cannot stop every boat that gets through. It is also clear that this strip of land has been consistently cited as a place where people are leaving from AND that this is common knowledge in Jaffna and Kilinochchi. (If it’s common knowledge amongst young men in Jaffna/Kilinochchi, then it would be very unlikely that military intelligence was not aware of these particular locations).

Regarding the point about TSA “dumbing down” a complex situation. Is illegal migration complicated? Sure. But the fact of the matter is that this story was/is NOT being adequately covered by the Sri Lankan media. THIS WAS A PIECE OF BREAKING NEWS. TSA’s article was (obviously) not meant to be a comprehensive discourse on the subject of illegal migration, but that doesn’t mean that the article proves “intellectual bankruptcy.” Again, it’s an initial article, not a PhD dissertation. The involvement of military personnel in these activities has been mentioned in over ten interviews. Relatedly, the reports of people recently having to sign and date copies of birth certificates had also not been mentioned by the mainstream media. Do readers really believe that that’s an insignificant point?

In addition, some people may very well be travelling on the Eastern coast b/c it’s “the calm season.” That would make sense. However, the subject of the weather has not been mentioned during interviews, including one interview w/someone actively working to recruit/transport people. On the other hand, the word “elections” has come up several times w/out TSA interviewers having to mention that beforehand. (Of course there can be more than one factor, but it seems highly unlikely that the weather is the principal (or even a major) factor in this particular case).

Moreover the incredible rise (a 700% increase, according to one source) of people reaching Australia by boat compared to the previous year would also suggest that this recent trend is about more than weather:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/australia-caught-in-sri-lanka-refugee-crossfire-20120724-22nkc.html

If people doubt the veracity of some of the information which has been conveyed directly to TSA during interviews, we encourage people to do their own research in these areas. What we would not encourage is to read the newspapers in Colombo where the same superficial story is regurgitated almost on a daily basis.

*TSA continues to gather information about these developments and may publish something more comprehensive later this month.

If I may add to Michael’s insightful analysis from down under, Uberto Pasolini’s mocumentary ‘Machan’ highlights the greatest illegal migration operation ever to take place in this century.
What’s more, one of the ‘film starts’ went ‘missing’ in Germany while the film is being shot.
So there is a long history of Sri Lankans of all persuasions seeking greener pastures for plethora of reasons.
What TSA has done is to dumb down a complex situation, thinking that one day the Fox News might pick up the story! Intellectual bankruptcy indeed!

Again while young Tamils may have particular political reasons for their outmigration desires that do not apply to other Lankans, foreigners reading the TSA essay and its commentary should place the debate in wider context. The economic imperatives that inspire outmigration cannot be comprehended without a broader survey. Young Muslims and Sinhalese are also hustling and bustling –and busting –to get abroad. The recent stampede by young males to get application forms for official labour migration to Korea is just one illustration. Research in the Negombo area would probably unearth a longish history of chain migration n to Italy in particular, promoted by stories from Italy, chain networks linking earlier migrants to new prospects and monetary flows from kinsfolk abroad, etc etc. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the illegal journeys were by trawler all the way to Italy –no less dangerous/facile than journeys to Australia [and certainly not as inevitably dangerous as Aussie people think because well-equipped Lankan trawlers (with GPS?) regularly fish off NW Australia and such places as the Seychelles and Mauritius].

A modern trawler is a body of capital. Well-heeled entrepreneurs in human smuggling would want to use their boats again and again since the loss of a boat is no small matter. The shonky entrepreneurs may try to make a killing by using an older boat that can be sunk or plead distress to draw aid from Australian ships; and by packing it heavy with migrants. Both these statements, I stress, are conjectures.

My memo as a whole is a land lubber comment, albeit a land lubber born and bred beside the sea.. Thus, one needs to draw in a local Lankan seafarer’s expertise on such issues. Maybe even a foreign yachtsman sojourning in Galle harbour could inject some ‘ground’ expertise to this debate. However, for anyone to think that military personnel could easily discern boats with migrants seems CRASS to me.

The people (whether Tamil-Lankan, Sinhala-Lankan. Muslim-Lankan, Hazzara-Afghan , Pakistani or Indian) who venture forth in this clandestine manner from Sri Lanka are not being trafficked in the manner of prostitute chains and child-slaves. One can surmise that in their thinking they are exploiting illegal paths towards self-advancement. That some are ill-informed about the risks of sea-voyage and far too insouciant about their future prospects abroad is probable. However, as other bloggers have stressed, they are not being trafficked in the sense of bonded labour.

As closing note – a fluid kind of note — there is yet another surmise that can be essayed with greater certainty: few of these would-be asylum-seekers are aware that they are going to be sea sick. Sea-sickness is gut-wrenching, bloody awful. I am a land lubber who has experienced it once, way back in the Bay of Biscay. It remains indelible memory, an experience to be avoided at all costs. Landlubbers note.

NB: This memo was drafted on Thursday last after the Harriet Mansell blog comment – but I am on the road in UK and had no internet access till today Sunday.

There are strict laws in most countries governing the conditions under which non-citizens may enter, but probably the laws governing the conditions under which people may leave are much more vague. Therefore this issue is primarily one for Australia, not Sri Lanka, in my opinion.

Human beings have migrated to other countries ever since we evolved and will continue to do so into the future. Our ancestors all came, originally, from somewhere else, Africa probably. We probably have a genetic predisposition to wander like this, especially when we are young. There doesn’t have to be anything wrong with the place where we are now for us to want to go somewhere else. Often it’s just curiosity, or the spirit of adventure, or ambition.

It seems Australians want to be good Samaritans while using GoSL to do their dirty work.