Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Australia Thisara Samarasinghe says certain groups are funding Tamil asylum –seekers to Australia in a bid to discredit Sri Lanka, a media report said.

He has accused that the LTTE is using the people smuggling issue as a part of an elaborate PR campaign to discredit the Sri Lankan government.

“This is the terrorists’ long-term plans to show the world that Sri Lanka is not a place to stay.”

The latest comments from Samarasinghe comes as Sri Lanka on Monday detained 113 asylum-seekers and six organizers as they were preparing to leave Australia.

They have been arrested in groups both in Colombo and Negombo.

The group has been planning to travel by fishing trawlers.

Australian media reports that more than 1000 asylum-seekers have arrived in the country during this month, the first time the mark has been passed since August 2001.

Australian Tamil Association president Thiru Arumugam has agreed that more Tamils are now travelling to Australia by boat, but rejected claims the LTTE was behind the increase.

Courtesy: The Australian.com

Advertisement