Sri Lankan family in Australia fight against deportation to stay

A Sri Lankan family whose temporary protection visas have since been rejected and appealed hit headlines of some of the Australian media due to the protests of their neighbours demanding let them stay.

Mechanic Rajitha Udawatta, the family's primary visa holder, passed away in September, leaving his wife Florence and three of their four children in a precarious position, Daily Mail Australia reported. Udawatta died due to bowel cancer the day after his 50th birthday.

Rajitha Udawatta belonged Sinhala majority community of Sri Lanka and the family have not sought political asylum. 

The family do not want to return to Sri Lanka and their neighbours in Kempsey in New South Wales have rallied around their desperate fight to stay.

Udawatta's eldest daughter Hirushi, who is training to become a chef, is able to stay in Australia on a student visa. But Ms Udawatta will have to return to Sri Lanka with her other children Ruvish, 17,  Jeniffer, 8, and Duane, 7, if the family lose their appeal to stay.

"Family is here because we can't feel that we are Sri Lankans when we are here. We are just like Australians,"  Ms Udawatta said to Daily Mail Australia. "So, our dream is to stay here."

Raj Udawatta migrated to Australia in 2014 and his family joined him two years later. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer and passed away in September 2020. 

Read more in Daily Mail

Sri Lanka to offer East Terminal development of Colombo Port to India

Sri Lanka has decided to vest in the development of the East Terminal of Colombo Port to India's Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd., a company of Adani Group belonged to billionaire Gautam Adani, reported Bloomberg website.

"Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. and a local partner received an in-principle approval to sign a deal with Sri Lanka Ports Authority, which will hold majority stake in the project," the report said.

The preliminary agreement in regard to this deal was signed in 2019 with the involvement of Japan as well. India, Japan, Australia and the United States have joined together to deal power in the Indo-Pacific region and Sri Lanka is under pressure to select either to partner with them or to select China's Belt and Road strategy. 

"India extended a $400 million currency swap facility to Colombo to assist with post-pandemic economic recovery. The two countries also discussed deferring of debt repayment during Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s first high-level virtual meeting since his re-election with India’s Narendra Modi in September," Bloomberg reported.

Before the parliamentary election in early August, the trade unions of Sri Lanka Ports Authority staged a protest demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to deliver a written promise not to hand over East Terminal to any foreign country. The President promised to review the agreement but did not deliver the promise demanded by trade unions. 

The trade union leaders suspended the trade union action and went to a stressful silence after a visit to meet the government leaders. 

(Photo: Thanks to Bloomberg)

More Sri Lankans risk lives in the efforts to migrate to Australia

(October 12, Colombo - Lanka Polity) More Sri Lankans are taking risks to migrate to Australia looking for green pastures in small fishing crafts despite repeated warnings of Australia to avoid illegal migration. Last week, media reported that Australia had hired a advertising agency to make aware the Sri Lankans on the risks of their efforts to migrate to Down Under.

However, with the trying economic conditions and the human rights conditions in the island, some people do not hesitate to pay huge sums of money to traffickers to take them to Australia in fishing craft in a very dangerous journey.

Indonesian authorities yesterday captured a group of about 260 migrants from Sri Lanka who are suspected of trying to sail to Australia, a navy spokesman said to AP Sunday.

An Indonesian warship intercepted a cargo ship carrying the group off Anak Krakatau, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra islands, said Lt. Col. Supriono, a spokesman for the Western Fleet of Indonesian Navy to AP.

The report further said that

He said the navy then sent three other warships to help transport them to Merak seaport in Banten province on the western end of Java. Some of the migrants refused to be taken off the cargo ship.

Harry Purwanto, head of Banten immigration office said the group, which includes some women and children, would be kept in Banten while they were identified and then would be transferred to immigration detention centers in the capital of Jakarta or other big cities.

Migrants from war-ravaged countries often sail through Indonesian waters on their way to Australia.

Last week, Indonesian police in eastern province of East Nusatenggara detained 22 illegal migrants — 19 Iranians, two Iraqis and one Afghan — who were trying to get to Australia.