Australian Border Force intercepted at least three vessels from Sri Lanka in the past month, as hundreds tried to flee that country’s devastating economic meltdown ChrisBarrett_
The Sri Lankan navy has been given priority access to fuel on the crisis-hit island as it tries to stop a surge of boats leaving for Australia while conceding it will be difficult to catch them all.as hundreds tried to flee a devastating economic meltdown,A picture supplied by the Sri Lankan navy of an alleged asylum seeker boat bound for Australia earlier this month.
The Sri Lankan navy already used two of Australia’s retired patrol boats that it gave the South Asian nation when Operation Sovereign Borders came into force under Tony Abbott in 2013 and the two countries shared information on such maritime activities.Alex Ellinghausen De Silva said the Sri Lankan navy had the capacity with its on-water and land deployments to stop most of the boats, but the task of monitoring 1340 kilometres of coastline made it difficult to prevent some getting through.
Conditions in Sri Lanka have deteriorated to the point where it is all but out of fuel, with petrol bowsers running dry after a final shipment via a credit line from India arrived late last week. The scarcity hasn’t just left motorists stranded and forced buses off the road, but has stopped fishermen going out to sea and caused hospitals to cancel major surgeries because staff can’t travel to work.
According to the United Nations, four out of five people are skipping meals and 5.7 million – more than a quarter of the population of 22 million – are in need of life-saving humanitarian assistance.
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