41 deported illegal Sri Lankan immigrants arrive in Sri Lanka

A group of 41 illegal Sri Lankan immigrants who were arrested and deported by Australian authorities arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) this morning (May 09).

They had been detained on Christmas Island pending deportation.

They had travelled by sea on board multi day fishing trawlers, only to be arrested in their attempt to enter Australia.

Investigations revealed that the majority of them were from the Jaffna and Valaichchenai areas.

Three senior officials of the Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka were at BIA to hand over the group to the Sri Lankan Immigration and Emigration Authorities.

The suspects were to be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) unit at the BIA and produced before the Negombo magistrate after preliminary investigations conducted by the National Intelligence authorities.