Navy, CG continuing search for boat carrying trafficked people

The Indian Navy and Coast Guard are

continuing its search for a fishing boat believed to have left the Kerala coast on January 12 with some people in a suspected case of human trafficking or illegal migration to Australia, a defence spokesman said Wednesday.

"The search is continuing. Inputs, as and when received, will be shared with state administration," the spokesman told PTI here.

The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard have directed their vessels already deployed in the high seas to search for the fishing boat 'Daya Mata' suspected to have left the Kerala coast with some people, including women and children.

 

There is no clarity on the exact number of people who have allegedly left the coast in the boat, police sources said.

The number will be known only after the investigation is complete, they said.

The police have constituted a special team to carry out the probe after the shocking incident was reported last week from Munambam and Vadakkekkara police limits in Ernakulam district.

The police, however, remain tight-lipped about the progress made in the case.

Defence sources had earlier said they were not clear how effective searches could be carried out amid thousands of boats which are already in the sea for fishing.

The sources had also said the Navy and the Coast Guard could not treat the issue as a matter of coastal security.

"It is not a coastal security issue. This is a legal issue. Illegal trafficking. It is a state issue, policing issue," a source said.

The police, after their initial assessment, had said some 40 people, including women and newborns, had left resorts and home stays in Cherai and Munambam coastal areas of the district on January 12.

The vessel in which they were allegedly trafficked was purchased recently by two persons-- one from Tamil Nadu and the other from Kerala.

Initial investigation had also found that one of the addresses given was fake.

In 2015, Australia had made it clear that people who attempt to travel illegally to the country by sea would not be allowed to settle there.

The country's Consul-General to South India had stressed that anyone who survived the journey would be intercepted and transferred to Regional Processing Centres in Nauru or Manus Island (in Papua New Guinea).