Over 1,300 Lankans in attempt to seek asylum in Australia

Australian authorities say that over 1,300 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka have attempted to enter Australia illegally during the first six months of the year whilst 531 had been arrested by Sri Lankan Police.

Immigration officer at the Department of Immigration, Daniel Sanders has told the Sri Lankan media that there had been 1,340 asylum seekers who had tried to illegally enter into Australia during the first six months in 2012.

He has noted that it is almost five times the total amount of asylum seekers that arrived from Sri Lanka in 2011.

He has added that almost 60 per cent of the boat people who had interviews by the Australian authorities had confirmed that they had commenced their voyage from Sri Lanka while the rest have claimed to be from refugee camps in India.

According to Sanders, the majority of the asylum seekers are Tamils, but there are also Sinhalese and some Muslims amongst them as well.

The Australian authorities are still studying the applications handed by the boat people seeking asylum.

Sri Lanka Navy in the last three days arrested 172 people attempting to illegally migrate to Australia while the police said that it had prevented over 700 people illegally migrating to Australia this year.