If the Government of Sri Lanka does not go after this problem in earnest NOW, we hope Lankans will not be saddled in the end with a problem that they will be unable to handle.
The greatest fear is that these people who have come in as illegal migrants will join up with unsavoury groups and negative politicians for protection. In particular the TNA who will want to pad up numbers. They will take up land and shelter which is really for true born Lankans. There is a civic duty here on the part of ordinary citizens to report illegal migrants to the Police or the Armed forces.
Just how many of the ltte ‘human shield’ are illegal migrants ? How many illegal migrants came in during the ltte hold of the N&E ? How do we locate such people ?
Checking for illegal migrants is really the duty of the Dept of Immigration & Emigration. Do our tourists have a return ticket when they arrive here ? Is there a system that rings an alarm bell if the tourist has overstayed his/her visa ? Do they declare which hotel/friend’s place they will stay, with a contact phone number ? What steps can be taken to locate such illegal migrants ? What is to be done with those identified as illegal migrants ?
GoSL ought to act without fear in this matter as all the western countries do not tolerate any illegal migrants. America deported 400,000 plus in 2011 alone. The Indian govt. must understand the problem and accept back all illegal migrants.
Let us not forget that Tamil Nadu alone has 5 -10 Million Tamils of low caste/Dalit origin who want to escape from TN. While I feel sorry for these people, Sri Lanka is NOT the place to come to roost. The problem has to be sorted out in TN.
The Ferry Service from South India should be put on hold for at least 10 yrs. or scrapped altogether.
I hope Sri Lanka deports them immediately.
