Kollam: The Kerala Police have arrested 11 Sri Lankan citizens who had reached Kollam for illegally travelling to countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand in fishing boats. According to officials, a major racket involved in human trafficking was behind the incident.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Police have intensified the search for more people who have reportedly arrived in Kollam for illegal migration. However, the authorities are yet to trace the fishing boat meant to take the people abroad.
The 11 Sri Lankans were arrested from a hotel around 2.45 am on Monday. The police identified them as Sudarshan (27) and Pavithran (27), belonging to Trincomalee in Sri Lanka; Saravanan (24), Ajay (24), Prasad (24), Mathivannan (35), Queens Raj (22) and Jarsool (21) who were staying at Valavanthankottai refugee camp in Trichy, Tamil Nadu; Dinesh Kumar (36) and Navaneethan (24) who arrived from Chennai and Prakash Raj (22) who reached Kollam from Tirunelveli.
Sudarshan and Pavithran had landed at Chennai from Sri Lanka on July 20 and travelled by bus to Kollam. The Q-Branch of the Tamil Nadu police launched an investigation when both of them – who had arrived on a tourist visa – went missing. The probe revealed that several other Sri Lankan citizens also had gone missing from the refugee camp. Q-Branch officers soon traced the route of the missing persons to Kollam and alerted the Kerala Police.
Based on the information provided by Q-Branch, officers from the Kollam East Police Station arrested the Sri Lankans.