Day 13: Water and food have almost run out. Each man is given a few sips of water in a small cup. Their attempts to catch fish for food have been unsuccessful so a decision has been made to ration both.
Wherever Sampath looked, all he saw was the sea and skies in different shades of blue blending into an abyss. He has started to cough up blood now. Gastritis at its worst. His only friend, the skipper’s brother, tells others not to give up on him. Sometimes he brushes his face with a sea water-soaked cloth.
Sampath and 34 others set sail from the Negombo fishery harbour in the hope of finding greener pastures across the Indian Ocean. Their destination- Australia.
“I stumbled on this by chance. The skipper’s brother was a friend and they wanted five crew members to man the boat. I didn’t have much to live here anyway, so I agreed to go with them,” he tells the Sunday Observer.
Then onwards, everything happened very quickly and in extreme secrecy. He was told to be ready. He will hear from the skipper any day, anytime.
When he got the news that the boat was ready to depart that night several years ago, he only had a few minutes to prepare. So, he simply got up and left home.
“I had Rs. 100 on me and the t-shirt and pair of trousers I was wearing. We were five in the crew. All Sinhalese. We waited for under an hour for the others, to arrive. They were all Tamil-speaking people from the Northern and Eastern areas. When they arrived, in the dark, we all left together,” Sampath said.
According to the Sri Lanka Navy, 1,385 people were nabbed attempting to illegally migrate on boats in 2022.A majority of these boat people were on their way to Australia. In 2021 the number of boats nabbed was 103, and in 2019, 152 with no one taken into custody in 2020.
This year, thus far, 86 people have been taken into custody by the Sri Lanka Navy and handed over to the Police. Many of them were en route to Diego-Garcia, a relatively new destination.
Like a scratch on the back
Day 1:Sampath and the other four crew members remained on the boat’s deck while everyone else hid in the hold. When a few Navy officers came onboard for inspection, Sampath wasn’t worried. The inspection took only a few minutes. During this time, the hold was not inspected so they set off to destination Australia uninterrupted equipped with a single GPS which the crew took turns to observe.
“It’s an understanding deal we have with the officer leading the inspection,” Kamal* who has an intimate knowledge of the human smuggling business told the Sunday Observer during a meeting in his home in a village in Chilaw.
This allegation was refuted by Navy spokesman Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya. He said the Navy has not received complaints regarding such misconduct by naval officers.
A costly, deadly affair
Human smuggling has become a lucrative business in Chilaw. Kamal said at least one member of the families living in Udappuwa, a small fishing village in Chilaw, has a relative who attempted or succeeded in going to a foreign country by boat.
“They take about Rs. 1 million from one person to make the trip. There is no guarantee whatsoever that they will reach Australia or any other country,” he said.
 Pictures from Sri Lanka Navy |
The fee is just to get on the boat. Many have sold land and jewellery and even fallen prey to loan sharks in order to make the money to pay the boat operator. So, if they fail to cross the Indian Ocean, they come home to a much worse situation than the one they left.
Sampath said that almost everyone who went with him wanted to escape poverty back home. Most of the people in his village were fishermen or farmers.
And there is death in the sea. Sampath says that he knows of a man who died after falling into the sea mid-journey. “When that happens, they just leave the body there floating on water. Sharks eat the bodies,” he said.
Because a dead man, on the high seas, is just that- dead weight.
When Sampath got gastritis and was coughing blood he also thought he would be left behind. His friend, the skipper’s brother, took care of him when others didn’t want to come near him fearing they’ll catch his disease.
Day 16: They were exhausted. A few days ago, they survived a thunderstorm. When they spotted land finally, they couldn’t contain their happiness. Sampath said the crew clapped and the others saluted the island as they do to gods.
Australian officials who found them, conducted medical screening before taking them to the Cocos Islands. The trip took them 18 days.
“We were a few of the lucky ones. Now they don’t even take people to land but instead send them straight back to Sri Lanka,” he said.
In an email, the Australian Border Force (ABF) said that the Sri Lankan and Australian authorities have partnered to ‘deter, disrupt, intercept and return’ illegal boats.
“We do this to prevent the loss of life at sea, risk to the livelihoods of vulnerable individuals and to stamp out the criminal people smuggling trade,” the ABF said adding that people smugglers are taking advantage of a range of geopolitical factors by preying on vulnerable individuals, making empty promises of safe passage to Australia, at a high financial cost to these individuals.
“Our message is clear – Australia’s borders are closed to illegal migration. The tough border protection policies that have secured Australia’s borders against the threat of people smuggling and prevented vulnerable individuals from dying at sea remain in place,” the ABF said.
“Don’t risk your lives”
According to human rights activist Ruki Fernando people are opting to make the journey on boats due to insecurity including economic and food.
“Sri Lanka is a good case study for this. People use illegal methods because they can’t live with dignity,” he said.
Captain Wickramasuriya said that the Sri Lanka Navy is doing the ‘maximum’ they can to stop human smuggling, which is identified as a non-traditional security threat.
He said that there were instances where boats that could typically carry around eight people carrying up to 100 people. He also warned people of threats from pirates who shoot and loot boats.
“It is a very dangerous journey,” he said adding there was also no guarantee that they will reach their destination. “The sea is not like the land, we can’t predict it,” he said, urging everyone not to risk their lives.
Sampath, now in his late 30s, is back, married, and settled in Sri Lanka. Every week he meets someone who shows an interest in taking the boat trip and asks for his advice.
“I tell them the truth. It is a very hard journey. I will not do it again but if someone really wants to go, he must know the risks. There are sharks, there are thunderstorms, and you run out of water and food. When you die your body is dumped in the sea,” he said, adding that he does not encourage nor discourage anyone.
However, Kamal said people who organise boats are doing a service. “If there are people willing to take the risk then there is nothing wrong with organising a boat to cross the sea. They are looking for some way to help their families here,” he said.
Names changed to protect the identity of the sources
