85 illegal immigrants arrested in the Eastern waters -Mojo news lk

During a patrol carried out by the Sri Lankan Navy in Batticaloa, a local multi-day fishing vessel carrying 85 people was arrested at 11* in the morning, and the Navy says that it is suspected to be a group that tried to illegally migrate to a foreign country by sea.

The Navy announced that the suspicious local multi-day fishing vessel was arrested during a patrol conducted by the Sri Lanka Naval Ship Ranawickrama attached to the Eastern Naval Command near Batticaloa.

Among those arrested were reported to be 60 men, including boat operators, 14 women over the age of 18, and 11 others under the age of 18.

The Navy also held the multiday fishing trawler used for this illegal sea voyage and SL Navy recognized that all the detained people were from Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Muthur, Kilinochchi, Jaffna, and Madu.

After bringing the arrested people to Trincomalee port, they will be handed over to the police for further investigations.

Meanwhile, during a search operation carried out by the Navy along with the Police Special Task Force on the coast of Mohoththuwaram, the Navy also stated that they have arrested 05 suspects and 04 dinghies suspected of having been used to take people to the multi-day fishing vessel that was seized by the Sri Lankan Navy Ship Ranavikrama.

Those suspects and their dinghies were handed over to the Kattankudy Police for onward legal action.

The Sri Lanka Navy, observing that people smugglers use unsafe methods to organize these types of trafficking with the aim of making quick money, requests the public to refrain from engaging in such risky voyages and not to become victims before the law.