Young men in the North and the East face the imminent danger of being recruited as mercenaries in the ongoing battle between Russia and Ukraine.
A mother of a youngster from Jaffna had made a fervent appeal at a Police station in Jaffna to rescue her son from those who had taken her son and several other young men forcibly and made them join the Russian Army in the fight against Ukraine for the past two years.
Six young men including a father of three had been duped by a bogus travel agent who was found to be recruiting young men from the North and the East in a clandestine manner to be mercinaries of the Russian Army.
Following complaints to the Jaffna Police by the parents of the men in their mid-twenties, it was brought to the notice of the Foreign Ministry.
Six young men had paid Rs. 6,000,000 each to their travel agent who had promised to take them to France. However, the travel agent had disembarked them at the Moscow airport and told them that they had to travel to France via Russia.
At the Moscow Airport, a Russian had taken over the Jaffna men and taken them forcibly to a Russian Army camp where they were given 15 days of tough military training.
The plight of these young Jaffna men was revealed by Gomez Raja Mithurshan, one of the victims after sending his picture in his military uniform and a letter written to his mother in Kurunagar, Jaffna.
Bogus travel agent
The six men from Mullaithivu, Nelliyadai and Jaffna from the Northern Province were duped and flown to Russia by the bogus travel agent who had promised to take them to France.
According to sources from Jaffna, the bogus travel agents are operating in a crafty manner by dealing with the middlemen helping the Russian Army to get young men from Asian countries and getting money from the young men from the North and the East posing as travel agents to help them to reach various European destinations.
Parents of the six young Jaffna men from Karavetty, Mulliyawalai and Jaffna have lodged a complaint with the Police and they had even met Northern Province Governor N. Vethanayakam and sought his assistance to bring back their sons from Russia.
Following the requests by the parents of the young men who had been duped and made to fight alongside the Russian Army against Ukraine, the Governor of the Northern Province had contacted the Secretary to the Foreign Ministry and explained the plight of the parents who want their sons back from the war-torn Eastern Europe.
Several organisations in the North have alerted the people to be cautious about the job and the travel agents who operate in a clandestine manner to mislead the young men.
A mass exodus of young men from the North and the East took place in the early eighties following the escalation of the North and East conflict which had lasted for nearly three decades.
Young men in their thousands fled to various European as well as to Scandinavian countries and to Canada and Australia to escape conscription by several Tamil militant outfits.
The young men from the North and the East were given asylum by the countries where they sought shelter on humanitarian grounds.
In the past 40 years, thousands of people from the North and the East have become citizens in the countries they have domiciled in. A large number of mixed marriages had also taken place between the men from Jaffna and young women in Europe.
Sources revealed that in Europe, there were many men from the North and the East awaiting permanent citizenship in Europe and some of them didn’t have proper job or shelter. Therefore, there is a tendency of these men becoming easy targets of those engaged in the conscription to be sent to the warfronts with big amounts of money paid to them.
Asylum seekers
Those who had migrated to Europe in the early eighties and established themselves in various businesses also use the asylum seekers from the North and the East with meagre payments.
The complaints lodged with the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry through the Jaffna Police by the parents of the young men who had been duped by bogus job agents and taken to Europe for the war in Eastern Europe has highlighted the manner in which human smugglers operate.
