The Kerala Police on Thursday arrested six Sri lankan Tamils who were planning to migrate to Australia illegally by sea. They were taken into custody from Munambam near Kochi. The police also arrested two agents and two boat operators who had promised to take the Sri lankans to Australia.
The police suspected the arrested lankan nationals were from different refugee centres in Sri lanka. During questioning, they told the police that they had paid Rs60,000 to Rs100,000 to the agents to take them to Australia by sea. The police had caught them by raiding the hotel they were staying at following a tip-off.
A police officer said they had nabbed the lankan Tamils by tracing their mobile phone locations, adding that they were trying to leave Munambam for Australia when they were caught. He said a case had been registered against them.
The police claimed this was an isolated case. However, in earlier incidents of suspected human trafficking, the police had taken into custody 37 lankan Tamils including four women and four children in 2011 from Kothamangalam and 38 other from Kollam in May, 2010.