Sri Lankan authorities today arrested 44 Australia-bound illegal immigrants, taking the total number of people arrested to over 100 in this week alone.
Today's group arrested in the southern coastal town of Aluthgama consists of 44 people, including four children, police said.
A group of 61 people was intercepted by the Navy off the eastern coast of Batticaloa on Wednesday.
All of them were Tamils, except for a sole Sinhalese. The group comprised of 43 men, 8 women and 10 children, the Navy said.
It was only yesterday that Australia announced the return of some 39 illegal entrants back to Lanka. 38 of them were those who had landed in the port of Geraldton in Western Australia last week.
Australia said since August 13 last year, some 1004 Lankans have been deported.
"Sending this group to Sri Lanka sends the powerful message that people who pay smugglers are throwing their money away and risking their lives in the process," Brendan O'Connor, Minister of Immigration and Citizenship of Australia was quoted as saying.
During a visit here by the Australian foreign minister Bob Carr in December last year, a four point plan to curb illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka was announced. This included intelligence sharing between the two countries, with technical assistance coming from Australia for surveillance of fishing boats carrying illegal immigrants on the risky voyage.
