Since the beginning of this year the numbers of Sri Lankan refugees – mostly Tamils - headed for Christmas Island has been steadily growing. It is certainly not clear whether the Gillard Government's recent decision to process asylum seeker offshore has had any impact yet. It certainly does not seem to have done so from here. There are widely divergent views on why the refugees are coming in such numbers - fleeing from persecution or just opportunists in search for a better life, seeking a shortcut to Australian residency. We set out to answer that question tonight from the remote villages where many of the Tamils refugees are coming - to the seas where they are being chased by the Sri Lankan Navy.
REPORTER: Mark Davis
It is early morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka – early enough for a fast drive to the naval dockyards before the traffic kicks in. All hands are on deck - another boatload of refugees has been caught off the coast, just a few hours drive north of the capital. It is the 25th boat caught since July headed for Christmas Island - almost 4,000 kilometres and three long weeks away.
If news of Australia's new offshore processing legislation has reached Sri Lanka, it does not seem to have reached the people that are hitting the boats. The numbers have absolutely spiked in the last month, including in the last week - 47 people were caught two days ago, 83 yesterday and this boatload this morning. If Australia's new offshore processing legislation is having any impact it is certainly not apparent from here.
The Sri Lankan Navy have stepped up patrols this year to apprehend people fleeing country. Their strike eight is rising but with 10,000 fishing vessels taking to the sea every day it is a tough job to catch them. This group's dash is over as they are escorted back in to a naval port – a port filling up with other boats just like theirs, captured in recent weeks. And like this boat, mostly crammed with Tamils from the north and east of the country.
REFUGEE: 70 – seven zero people here.
REPORTER: Seventy?
REFUGEE: Seventy people.
REPORTER: Seventy on this boat?
REFUGEE: Yeah.
REPORTER: To Australia on this boat?
REFUGEE: Yeah, yeah.
REPORTER: Okay, how are you feeling?
REFUGEE: Very bad. Very bad - I vomit every - guys vomit.
REPORTER: Vomit on the boat, seasick?
REFUGEE: Yeah - seasick.
He may be glad to have his life but he has lost just about everything else.
REFUGEE: I lost my money, my job, my everything. My land. Nothing - I can't say because I - every people like that, every people like that.
REPORTER: Everyone here?
REFUGEE: Everyone here.
REPORTER: What were you hoping to do in Australia - you were trying to go to Australia?
REFUGEE 2: Yeah.
REPORTER: Why?
REFUGEE 2: I need the life. My children, wife need a life because Australia - this is a good life.
REFUGEE 3: All gone.
REPORTER: All gone?
It cost them every cent and every asset they have. They know they could die at sea. They know they may be imprisoned in Australia or here if they are caught. Still, they come. But there are widely divergent views on why they risk so much. In Australia, Tamil migrants tell a story of abuse, persecution and fleeing for their lives.
Undoubtedly, many of the Tamil claims of abuse were true during the period of the civil war and its immediate aftermath. The Tamil guerrilla army - the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers - fought a brutal war to secede from Sri Lanka until they were soundly defeated in 2009. But none of the people caught today claim any sort of direct persecution on or off camera.
REFUGEE (Translation): The government there accepts a lot of people. We have no jobs here, what can we do? After we get there, they’ll keep us on Christmas Island. The Australian government will give us 16,000 rupees and accommodation and everything else. When we are released with a visa, they will get us a job. Even if we don’t get released, they will give us 40,000 rupees.
REFUGEE 4 (Translation): It’s very difficult - we can’t earn any money here. We can’t work in fishing. We’re on the poverty line.
REFUGEE 5 (Translation): Those who got there said they were treated well. After three months they are released to work. Refugees are given 60,000 to 100,000 rupees. That is what we heard from those who left six months before us. People I know have been sending money home. So I was confident that I’d be going to a better place.
REPORTER: Have you heard Australia has changed the law? They are not taking refugees any more - they are sending them to islands in the Pacific?
REFUGEE (Translation): I kind of heard that on the news, but I didn’t believe it. Yeah, I didn’t believe it at all.
With naval personnel nearby it is an unlikely place to talk about abuse but their comments are similar to those I hear elsewhere. What is clear is that all of these people are in a desperate situation and see no hope of relief from their own country - a desperate situation which has just taken a turn for the worse.
REFUGEE 6 (Translation): I don’t know what I’ll do, I’m just sitting here crying.
I travel from the West Coast to the East Coast town of Batticaloa a major port of departure for many of the refugees this year. It is a fishing town with no shortage it seems of boats to be bought. Tamils from north and east also head here to leave, either from the port or shuttled off the beach in boats like these to larger vessels waiting at sea.
Batticaloa is a political, cultural and religious stronghold for the Tamils. For decades the city and surrounds were firmly under the control of the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE.
PON SALVARAT, MP (Translation): In the north and east, Tamil people are asking for self-rule. If the government captures one of these two provinces, then all the work that we have done over the past three years will go to waste.
Today with the LTTE demolished the Tamils fear they could lose both economic and political control in the coming election. Local Member of Parliament, Pon Salvarat represents the Tamil National Alliance – the TNA. For him the exodus is propelled by economic uncertainty by those displaced by war and ongoing harassment by the army.
PON SALVARAT: Yeah, the forces, they are searching always. If they are LTTE supporters, they are searching, they are searching always. That is why they are not in a position to live here in Batticaloa. That is why they are going abroad.
And Salvarat offers a clue as to why so many are leaving this year in particular.
PON SALVARAT: They have stopped all food items.
The internal refugee camps which held 300,000 Tamils have been largely shut down in the past 12 months, and with them went the food and shelter they offered.
PON SALVARAT: The government has given all this for six months, food items, but unfortunately they have stopped everything. The dry rations and everything, they have stopped and they have no properties, no income, nothing, no livelihood - that’s why they have been going to Australia. The possibility is there, that’s why they are going.
Harassment, no food or income and still afraid of the abductions that took place as the war ended.
REPORTER: People are certainly afraid of that but is it still going on?
PON SALVARAT: Only between 2007 and 2009.
REPORTER: But clearly people are still afraid of that.
PON SALVARAT: Correct. Still people are afraid of that.
In West Batticaloa, Kamal Das runs half a dozen charities for a Tamil aid association, charities like this orphanage and there is no shortage of orphans in this village after decades of war.
REPORTER: One of the Tigers stronghold?
KAMAL DAS: Yes, the stronghold - Political stronghold.
We are now far away from the coast, in a small village in West Batticaloa, a former headquarters for the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE.
KAMAL DAS: And on your left you will see the quarters, the military quarters for the women of the LTTE.
REPORTER: Does that make all the people here a little bit suspicious?
KAMAL DAS: They are suspected to be LTTE sympathisers but not all. Left, please turn left. In front of you there is an election vehicle, I think it’s Jenna…..do you want to speak to them?
REPORTER: Yes!
KAMAL DAS: Okay, please stop and listen to one of the former militant leaders. Jenna, this is Australian television media.
Govinthan Karunakaram is a former militant – now standing for election, something of a novelty for Tamils who lived under LTTE control. Karunakaram despairs at the number of Tamils from this area, who are leaving and believes the Government is to blame and indeed maybe behind it.
REPORTER: A lot of people from this region are going to Australia. Why?
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: You know that people are suffering, suffering from the government because no jobs and this and that. Some people are telling government is purposely sending the people to Australia because they are trying to reduce the Tamil population.
REPORTER: I have heard that but I don't believe it because they are trying to catch them. They are catching hundreds of people and sending them back.
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: Yeah, they are sending thousand people and catching hundred people, you understand – because they are trying to tell the world “We are catching, we are not doing.” But they are sending thousand people, catching hundred people.
REPORTER: But what do you think, when someone tells you they are going to Australia, what do you say?
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: No, I am not agreed because route going to Australia is very dangerous. Used to be that people from this area, the young people, could go out of the country because of the trouble and trying to save their life, but at the moment life is not….
REPORTER: Under threat.
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: Not under threat.
REPORTER: Some people do still seem afraid though. They are afraid of the police, they are afraid of the army?
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: I don’t think so, at the moment is not that…
REPORTER: Not so bad… not so bad.
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: Not so bad.
KAMAL DAS (Translation): Are many talking about going to Australia?
MAN (Translation): They are talking about it but are worried about being caught.
KAMAL DAS: There are many people talking about migrating to Australia and they are also talking about being captured in the process of going abroad.
MAN (Translation): They are going to Australia for self-development and economic reasons.
KAMAL DAS: This road is put up by the locals – the local council of this village area.
REPORTER: Well, there are some redevelopment though – they are putting in roads.
KAMAL DAS: There are a number of developments taking place.
This young man is quite up-front about trying to get the Australia.
REPORTER: A lot of your friend are talking about trying to go?
YOUNG MAN: Yes, my friends.
REPORTER: Really?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: It is big trouble though if they get caught, it’s big trouble yeah?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: But they are ready to take that risk?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: They are ready to take that risk. At the risk of the ocean too where they can die?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: How have you heard that Australia treats the Sri Lankan people when they get there? Have you heard they put them in prison really?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: That is OK?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
KAMAL DAS: It is mass hysteria I think among the young people.
REPORTER: Mass hysteria?
KAMAL DAS: Yes.
REPORTER: That is what it feels like to you? It is almost viral – it’s spreading?
KAMAL DAS: Yes, the youth joined the LTTE during times of difficulties, they thought violence is the only way
REPORTER: So, they moved to the Tigers when the war was on and now…
KAMAL DAS: They were thinking they would win and now they are fleeing to the other end.
REPORTER: En masse – on their way to Australia.
KAMAL DAS: It is mass hysteria - they are not thinking logically.
While it seems unclear what messages the refugees are receiving the ones coming directly from 'The Australian' Government are unambiguous. Australian tourism ads are running on high rotation on cable television throughout Sri Lanka. You have to admit, it looks pretty good and the message certainly seems to be working.
WOMAN (Translation): Mother’s name? What is your father’s name?
At the Criminal Investigation Bureau interviews of boat people are under way.
MAN (Translation): He trades in fish.
WOMAN (Translation): He does business, so you asked him? You asked him….. to go abroad, if he can arrange a boat….
The officers of Police Superintendent Jayasuriye are now bursting with refugees - there is simply not enough room to keep people in holding cells.
REPORTER: What has been the trend in the numbers? Is it going up?
OFFICER: For 2012, from 1 January until now there are 1041.
REPORTER: But there seems to be an increased number in July, August?
OFFICER: Yes, from 10 July we have arrested 967.
REPORTER: 967?
OFFICER: For less than two months.
REPORTER: Really?
OFFICER: Yes, they will be prosecuted after getting advice from the attorney – general.
REPORTER: What penalties do they receive?
OFFICER: Passengers will be fined up to 200,000 rupees and they will be imprisoned for two or three years probably.
REPORTER: Two years?
OFFICER: Two years in prison.
REPORTER: The passengers?
OFFICER: The passengers, but normally they will be probably subject to suspended sentences – up to 10 years.
REPORTER: Wow.
Most will be bailed after a few days awaiting trial. This 15-year-old unaccompanied boy is the lucky one in this bunch.
BOY (Translation): They said I’m the only one they will let out.
WOMAN (Translation): But have you eaten?
More likely they will speak to his father who put him on the boat.
BOY (Translation): I think that it was good that they caught us. Because there were 69 of us there, 69 people can’t go on that boat. If we had continued, we would have drowned.
Back at the naval dockyards another boatload is coming in. They have uncannily similar stories to the others I have met.
YOUNG MAN: We are poor – no money but we are going to Australia. Because war problem.
Mostly Tamil, mostly impoverished.
REFUGEE: I am Kilinochchi. This is a war place. My father died - wartime and my mother.
All of them selling everything they have to make a down payment of around $1,500 to the smugglers, and a promise to pay another $6,000 if they make it to Australia.
REFUGEE: I have evidence..
All spelt out in the smuggler's contract and receipt.
REPORTER: And the man signs it – the man who took the money signed it?
REFUGEE: Yes.
REPORTER: Why, you’ll arrest him!
Their journeys end is not as tragic as a death at sea but a tragedy nevertheless. They will be facing police and judges soon and then perhaps even worse, families who sold everything, even their homes to help them escape. Australia does not want them. Nor, they believe, does Sri Lanka. But it is here this they will remain poorer than ever.
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Producers
GARRY MCNAB
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer
DUSHIYANTHINI KANAGASABAPATHIPILLAI
Associate Producer
MELANIE MORRISON
Editors
MICAH MCGOWN
SUE BELL
Translations/Subtitling
SARA NATHAN
EDILBERT RAJADURAI
VASEEKARAN RAJADURAI
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN
REPORTER: Mark Davis
It is early morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka – early enough for a fast drive to the naval dockyards before the traffic kicks in. All hands are on deck - another boatload of refugees has been caught off the coast, just a few hours drive north of the capital. It is the 25th boat caught since July headed for Christmas Island - almost 4,000 kilometres and three long weeks away.
If news of Australia's new offshore processing legislation has reached Sri Lanka, it does not seem to have reached the people that are hitting the boats. The numbers have absolutely spiked in the last month, including in the last week - 47 people were caught two days ago, 83 yesterday and this boatload this morning. If Australia's new offshore processing legislation is having any impact it is certainly not apparent from here.
The Sri Lankan Navy have stepped up patrols this year to apprehend people fleeing country. Their strike eight is rising but with 10,000 fishing vessels taking to the sea every day it is a tough job to catch them. This group's dash is over as they are escorted back in to a naval port – a port filling up with other boats just like theirs, captured in recent weeks. And like this boat, mostly crammed with Tamils from the north and east of the country.
REFUGEE: 70 – seven zero people here.
REPORTER: Seventy?
REFUGEE: Seventy people.
REPORTER: Seventy on this boat?
REFUGEE: Yeah.
REPORTER: To Australia on this boat?
REFUGEE: Yeah, yeah.
REPORTER: Okay, how are you feeling?
REFUGEE: Very bad. Very bad - I vomit every - guys vomit.
REPORTER: Vomit on the boat, seasick?
REFUGEE: Yeah - seasick.
He may be glad to have his life but he has lost just about everything else.
REFUGEE: I lost my money, my job, my everything. My land. Nothing - I can't say because I - every people like that, every people like that.
REPORTER: Everyone here?
REFUGEE: Everyone here.
REPORTER: What were you hoping to do in Australia - you were trying to go to Australia?
REFUGEE 2: Yeah.
REPORTER: Why?
REFUGEE 2: I need the life. My children, wife need a life because Australia - this is a good life.
REFUGEE 3: All gone.
REPORTER: All gone?
It cost them every cent and every asset they have. They know they could die at sea. They know they may be imprisoned in Australia or here if they are caught. Still, they come. But there are widely divergent views on why they risk so much. In Australia, Tamil migrants tell a story of abuse, persecution and fleeing for their lives.
Undoubtedly, many of the Tamil claims of abuse were true during the period of the civil war and its immediate aftermath. The Tamil guerrilla army - the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers - fought a brutal war to secede from Sri Lanka until they were soundly defeated in 2009. But none of the people caught today claim any sort of direct persecution on or off camera.
REFUGEE (Translation): The government there accepts a lot of people. We have no jobs here, what can we do? After we get there, they’ll keep us on Christmas Island. The Australian government will give us 16,000 rupees and accommodation and everything else. When we are released with a visa, they will get us a job. Even if we don’t get released, they will give us 40,000 rupees.
REFUGEE 4 (Translation): It’s very difficult - we can’t earn any money here. We can’t work in fishing. We’re on the poverty line.
REFUGEE 5 (Translation): Those who got there said they were treated well. After three months they are released to work. Refugees are given 60,000 to 100,000 rupees. That is what we heard from those who left six months before us. People I know have been sending money home. So I was confident that I’d be going to a better place.
REPORTER: Have you heard Australia has changed the law? They are not taking refugees any more - they are sending them to islands in the Pacific?
REFUGEE (Translation): I kind of heard that on the news, but I didn’t believe it. Yeah, I didn’t believe it at all.
With naval personnel nearby it is an unlikely place to talk about abuse but their comments are similar to those I hear elsewhere. What is clear is that all of these people are in a desperate situation and see no hope of relief from their own country - a desperate situation which has just taken a turn for the worse.
REFUGEE 6 (Translation): I don’t know what I’ll do, I’m just sitting here crying.
I travel from the West Coast to the East Coast town of Batticaloa a major port of departure for many of the refugees this year. It is a fishing town with no shortage it seems of boats to be bought. Tamils from north and east also head here to leave, either from the port or shuttled off the beach in boats like these to larger vessels waiting at sea.
Batticaloa is a political, cultural and religious stronghold for the Tamils. For decades the city and surrounds were firmly under the control of the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE.
PON SALVARAT, MP (Translation): In the north and east, Tamil people are asking for self-rule. If the government captures one of these two provinces, then all the work that we have done over the past three years will go to waste.
Today with the LTTE demolished the Tamils fear they could lose both economic and political control in the coming election. Local Member of Parliament, Pon Salvarat represents the Tamil National Alliance – the TNA. For him the exodus is propelled by economic uncertainty by those displaced by war and ongoing harassment by the army.
PON SALVARAT: Yeah, the forces, they are searching always. If they are LTTE supporters, they are searching, they are searching always. That is why they are not in a position to live here in Batticaloa. That is why they are going abroad.
And Salvarat offers a clue as to why so many are leaving this year in particular.
PON SALVARAT: They have stopped all food items.
The internal refugee camps which held 300,000 Tamils have been largely shut down in the past 12 months, and with them went the food and shelter they offered.
PON SALVARAT: The government has given all this for six months, food items, but unfortunately they have stopped everything. The dry rations and everything, they have stopped and they have no properties, no income, nothing, no livelihood - that’s why they have been going to Australia. The possibility is there, that’s why they are going.
Harassment, no food or income and still afraid of the abductions that took place as the war ended.
REPORTER: People are certainly afraid of that but is it still going on?
PON SALVARAT: Only between 2007 and 2009.
REPORTER: But clearly people are still afraid of that.
PON SALVARAT: Correct. Still people are afraid of that.
In West Batticaloa, Kamal Das runs half a dozen charities for a Tamil aid association, charities like this orphanage and there is no shortage of orphans in this village after decades of war.
REPORTER: One of the Tigers stronghold?
KAMAL DAS: Yes, the stronghold - Political stronghold.
We are now far away from the coast, in a small village in West Batticaloa, a former headquarters for the Tamil Tigers or the LTTE.
KAMAL DAS: And on your left you will see the quarters, the military quarters for the women of the LTTE.
REPORTER: Does that make all the people here a little bit suspicious?
KAMAL DAS: They are suspected to be LTTE sympathisers but not all. Left, please turn left. In front of you there is an election vehicle, I think it’s Jenna…..do you want to speak to them?
REPORTER: Yes!
KAMAL DAS: Okay, please stop and listen to one of the former militant leaders. Jenna, this is Australian television media.
Govinthan Karunakaram is a former militant – now standing for election, something of a novelty for Tamils who lived under LTTE control. Karunakaram despairs at the number of Tamils from this area, who are leaving and believes the Government is to blame and indeed maybe behind it.
REPORTER: A lot of people from this region are going to Australia. Why?
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: You know that people are suffering, suffering from the government because no jobs and this and that. Some people are telling government is purposely sending the people to Australia because they are trying to reduce the Tamil population.
REPORTER: I have heard that but I don't believe it because they are trying to catch them. They are catching hundreds of people and sending them back.
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: Yeah, they are sending thousand people and catching hundred people, you understand – because they are trying to tell the world “We are catching, we are not doing.” But they are sending thousand people, catching hundred people.
REPORTER: But what do you think, when someone tells you they are going to Australia, what do you say?
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: No, I am not agreed because route going to Australia is very dangerous. Used to be that people from this area, the young people, could go out of the country because of the trouble and trying to save their life, but at the moment life is not….
REPORTER: Under threat.
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: Not under threat.
REPORTER: Some people do still seem afraid though. They are afraid of the police, they are afraid of the army?
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: I don’t think so, at the moment is not that…
REPORTER: Not so bad… not so bad.
GOVINTHAN KARUNAKARAM: Not so bad.
KAMAL DAS (Translation): Are many talking about going to Australia?
MAN (Translation): They are talking about it but are worried about being caught.
KAMAL DAS: There are many people talking about migrating to Australia and they are also talking about being captured in the process of going abroad.
MAN (Translation): They are going to Australia for self-development and economic reasons.
KAMAL DAS: This road is put up by the locals – the local council of this village area.
REPORTER: Well, there are some redevelopment though – they are putting in roads.
KAMAL DAS: There are a number of developments taking place.
This young man is quite up-front about trying to get the Australia.
REPORTER: A lot of your friend are talking about trying to go?
YOUNG MAN: Yes, my friends.
REPORTER: Really?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: It is big trouble though if they get caught, it’s big trouble yeah?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: But they are ready to take that risk?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: They are ready to take that risk. At the risk of the ocean too where they can die?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: How have you heard that Australia treats the Sri Lankan people when they get there? Have you heard they put them in prison really?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
REPORTER: That is OK?
YOUNG MAN: Yes.
KAMAL DAS: It is mass hysteria I think among the young people.
REPORTER: Mass hysteria?
KAMAL DAS: Yes.
REPORTER: That is what it feels like to you? It is almost viral – it’s spreading?
KAMAL DAS: Yes, the youth joined the LTTE during times of difficulties, they thought violence is the only way
REPORTER: So, they moved to the Tigers when the war was on and now…
KAMAL DAS: They were thinking they would win and now they are fleeing to the other end.
REPORTER: En masse – on their way to Australia.
KAMAL DAS: It is mass hysteria - they are not thinking logically.
While it seems unclear what messages the refugees are receiving the ones coming directly from 'The Australian' Government are unambiguous. Australian tourism ads are running on high rotation on cable television throughout Sri Lanka. You have to admit, it looks pretty good and the message certainly seems to be working.
WOMAN (Translation): Mother’s name? What is your father’s name?
At the Criminal Investigation Bureau interviews of boat people are under way.
MAN (Translation): He trades in fish.
WOMAN (Translation): He does business, so you asked him? You asked him….. to go abroad, if he can arrange a boat….
The officers of Police Superintendent Jayasuriye are now bursting with refugees - there is simply not enough room to keep people in holding cells.
REPORTER: What has been the trend in the numbers? Is it going up?
OFFICER: For 2012, from 1 January until now there are 1041.
REPORTER: But there seems to be an increased number in July, August?
OFFICER: Yes, from 10 July we have arrested 967.
REPORTER: 967?
OFFICER: For less than two months.
REPORTER: Really?
OFFICER: Yes, they will be prosecuted after getting advice from the attorney – general.
REPORTER: What penalties do they receive?
OFFICER: Passengers will be fined up to 200,000 rupees and they will be imprisoned for two or three years probably.
REPORTER: Two years?
OFFICER: Two years in prison.
REPORTER: The passengers?
OFFICER: The passengers, but normally they will be probably subject to suspended sentences – up to 10 years.
REPORTER: Wow.
Most will be bailed after a few days awaiting trial. This 15-year-old unaccompanied boy is the lucky one in this bunch.
BOY (Translation): They said I’m the only one they will let out.
WOMAN (Translation): But have you eaten?
More likely they will speak to his father who put him on the boat.
BOY (Translation): I think that it was good that they caught us. Because there were 69 of us there, 69 people can’t go on that boat. If we had continued, we would have drowned.
Back at the naval dockyards another boatload is coming in. They have uncannily similar stories to the others I have met.
YOUNG MAN: We are poor – no money but we are going to Australia. Because war problem.
Mostly Tamil, mostly impoverished.
REFUGEE: I am Kilinochchi. This is a war place. My father died - wartime and my mother.
All of them selling everything they have to make a down payment of around $1,500 to the smugglers, and a promise to pay another $6,000 if they make it to Australia.
REFUGEE: I have evidence..
All spelt out in the smuggler's contract and receipt.
REPORTER: And the man signs it – the man who took the money signed it?
REFUGEE: Yes.
REPORTER: Why, you’ll arrest him!
Their journeys end is not as tragic as a death at sea but a tragedy nevertheless. They will be facing police and judges soon and then perhaps even worse, families who sold everything, even their homes to help them escape. Australia does not want them. Nor, they believe, does Sri Lanka. But it is here this they will remain poorer than ever.
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Producers
GARRY MCNAB
ASHLEY SMITH
Fixer
DUSHIYANTHINI KANAGASABAPATHIPILLAI
Associate Producer
MELANIE MORRISON
Editors
MICAH MCGOWN
SUE BELL
Translations/Subtitling
SARA NATHAN
EDILBERT RAJADURAI
VASEEKARAN RAJADURAI
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN