Asada M ErpiniƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

At least Australia, rather belatedly though, seems to have realised that there is a difference between an illegal immigrant and a refugee. A report dated 02 November states that a group of 26 Sri Lankans have been sent back on Thursday. It is worth noting that the report continues, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Australia had returned 116 Sri Lankans home – voluntarily and involuntarily -since 13 AugustƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Peace-loving Sri Lankans who are based in Sri Lanka would wish that Canada, too, follows suit. But then, that expectation can only be far-fetched dream: Toronto alone has at least 250,000 Tamils who came from, or have connections through their families to, Sri Lanka, and there is the enviable bloc vote, that has stood in good stead for, and is waiting to be tapped by, the politically bankrupt who promote the cause of the alleged discrimination of Tamils in Sri Lanka. In fact, they make a living out of non-existent problems in faraway Sri Lanka that none of them has ever visited or intend to do so.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A refugee according to the Oxford Dictionary is, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disasterƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚. Many of the Sri Lankans, mainly Tamils, who ran away from Sri Lanka during the recent past, were LTTE fighters or their supporters who had declared war against the sovereign nation of Sri Lanka. Naturally they would face legal action, and to avoid that, the easiest and the readily available avenue was to get out claiming persecution.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The usual practice with any refugee anywhere is that he runs to the nearest place of safety, but for the large majority of the Tamils who left Sri Lanka carrying the refugee canard, the logical place ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” Tamil Nadu – that existed a mere 30 Kilometres was not good enough. Tamil Nadu had nearly 70 million of their brethren, of the same language, faith, food habits, dress code, climate, and religion, but a key feature that dissuaded the majority of the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”refugeesƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ was that it was a state of India that fell far behind the social benefits and potential earnings beckoning them to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany or South Africa. So, taking a boat ride to Newfoundland, lying more than 3000 kilometres away, was a risk worth taking for those who were able to find, by any means, the human traffickersƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ fee of around $40,000 per head.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is human nature that people tend to go for greener pastures, abandoning their countries of origin. In fact, the typical present day Canadian, as well as the Australian or the New Zealander, is not the descendent of peoples who inhabited these vast lands for many millennia. But the sad state of affairs is that many of the affluent countries today, led by Australia, Canada, the USA and most European states, erect untold barriers to even a visitor from Sri Lanka who has the means and wishes to travel to these countries on genuine business or as a tourist. As opposed to that, ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ get in as an illegal immigrant decrying Sri Lanka, and there are literally thousands of their brethren well settled in the new found havens, human rights merchants, local politicians and religious leaders who are eager to take up the case of the illegal immigrant and fight on his behalf at every possible level. In fact, as long as the myth of discrimination of Tamils in Sri Lanka can be perpetuated, the better are the opportunities for the unscrupulous to venture out from Sri Lanka and their agents to entice the bogus refugee claimants.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka should plan and implement a robust scheme to inform the rest world, especially the rich countries, that there is no institutionalised discrimination of the Tamils in the country. The Tamil community that opted to remain or invest in Sri Lanka has an enviable position: over 40% of the Colombo population is Tamil and some of the most lucrative business ventures are owned and managed by Tamils, with no hindrance from any other ethnic group, or, for that matter, the government. The problems that the law-abiding Tamils face are no different from those that the average Sinhala, Moor or Malay person, especially in the underprivileged regions of the country, faces. This information should be disseminated as widely as possible: Sri Lanka has kept quiet for too long.