ON A remote stretch of Sri Lanka's west coast lies the village that wants to come to Australia.
The homes here are built alike, low and squat, their thatched roofs tightly tied down against the monsoon's rains and wind. And from almost every one, someone has left for Australia.
Some reach Christmas Island, phoning home to say they're safe. Others are caught before they can board a boat, or have their vessel stopped and turned around by Sri Lankan navy ships. Still others leave and are never heard from again.
''Five hundred people have left from this village, from this area, all for Australia,'' says Kajan*, waving his arm along the beachfront, a few hundred metres down from a military watchpost over the sea. ''Everybody is going because they see other people reach there and they want that life too.''
His son-in-law and a friend, both fishermen, left a little over a month ago. They reached Christmas Island after three weeks at sea. ''They went for money reasons,'' he says, through an interpreter. ''We cannot make a living here. They went so they could support our family.''
Kajan insists that, three years on from the end of Sri Lanka's brutal separatist civil war, the country still offers Tamils no chance ''to make a good life''. ''No job, no education, we have trouble from the police and army. We are desperate people,'' he says.
This year has seen a massive jump in the number of asylum seekers, overwhelmingly Tamil, fleeing Sri Lanka for Australia. So far, 1541 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have reached Australian territory, more than a 700 per cent increase on the figure for all of last year (211). As well, more than 700 people have been arrested and jailed for trying to leave Sri Lanka, ''irregularly'' seeking passage to Australia. In the past fortnight alone, 334 people have been arrested trying to flee, Navy Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya says.
The navy, police, army and air force are all deployed patrolling Sri Lanka's coasts and, almost every day, another boatload is intercepted and turned around. Police spokesman Ajith Rohana says the massive jump in numbers was because of a delayed, and weak, monsoon, which had given boats a chance to get across the Indian Ocean. He says Australia was the easiest and the cheapest place for asylum seekers to flee to
Some reach Christmas Island, phoning home to say they're safe. Others are caught before they can board a boat, or have their vessel stopped and turned around by Sri Lankan navy ships. Still others leave and are never heard from again.
''Five hundred people have left from this village, from this area, all for Australia,'' says Kajan*, waving his arm along the beachfront, a few hundred metres down from a military watchpost over the sea. ''Everybody is going because they see other people reach there and they want that life too.''
His son-in-law and a friend, both fishermen, left a little over a month ago. They reached Christmas Island after three weeks at sea. ''They went for money reasons,'' he says, through an interpreter. ''We cannot make a living here. They went so they could support our family.''
Kajan insists that, three years on from the end of Sri Lanka's brutal separatist civil war, the country still offers Tamils no chance ''to make a good life''. ''No job, no education, we have trouble from the police and army. We are desperate people,'' he says.
This year has seen a massive jump in the number of asylum seekers, overwhelmingly Tamil, fleeing Sri Lanka for Australia. So far, 1541 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have reached Australian territory, more than a 700 per cent increase on the figure for all of last year (211). As well, more than 700 people have been arrested and jailed for trying to leave Sri Lanka, ''irregularly'' seeking passage to Australia. In the past fortnight alone, 334 people have been arrested trying to flee, Navy Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya says.
The navy, police, army and air force are all deployed patrolling Sri Lanka's coasts and, almost every day, another boatload is intercepted and turned around. Police spokesman Ajith Rohana says the massive jump in numbers was because of a delayed, and weak, monsoon, which had given boats a chance to get across the Indian Ocean. He says Australia was the easiest and the cheapest place for asylum seekers to flee to
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