Australia has provided funding to install tracking devices on more than 4,000 Sri Lankan fishing vessels, a move partly aimed at detecting asylum seekers journeying to Australia.
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has repeatedly emphasised during her visit to Sri Lanka this week that Australia maintains its hardline Operation Sovereign Borders policy, despite the change of government last month.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and the Australian government has also announced it will provide $50m in aid for urgent food and healthcare needs.
O’Neil met with Sri Lanka’s fisheries minister, Douglas Devananda, in Colombo on Tuesday to open a new fisheries monitoring centre.
“Fishing vessels should only be used for fishing and not for other activity,” O’Neil said in a statement.
“Australia and Sri Lanka’s close working relationship means that anyone who attempts to get into a boat and try to sail to Australia will be detected and stopped by border authorities.”
O’Neil said that “in the recent weeks and months” the governments of Australia and Sri Lanka had “detected and stopped every boat that has tried to sail to another country, saving many lives at sea”.
The Australian newspaper reported that the Australian government would provide 4,200 GPS trackers to Sri Lankan authorities. The report said that when the system was fully implemented, the Sri Lankan government would penalise vessels without the trackers, or those that disable them.
The Guardian has sought further details from O’Neil’s office.
But a statement published by the Australian high commission earlier said Australia’s “support has seen funding provided to install vessel monitoring systems” into more than 4,000 multi-day fishing vessels. The statement was ambiguous about the timing of those systems being provided.
The 🇦🇺 Minister for Home Affairs, Clare O’Neil MP was pleased to jointly launch the Fisheries Monitoring Centre (FMC) with the 🇱🇰 Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, Douglas Devananda MP in 🇱🇰 today. pic.twitter.com/I8HGlaZlSx
— Australia in Sri Lanka and Maldives (@AusHCSriLanka) June 21, 2022
O’Neil’s statement suggested vessels would be monitored for several purposes, including sending help to boats requiring assistance, ensuring fishing stocks are not overfished and enabling the fishing industry to meet export requirements for sustainable and ethical fishing practices.
“Finally, the Fisheries Monitoring Centre will assist in early identification of illicit fisheries practices and irregular vessel movements intended for transnational crime, including people smuggling, which pose risks to economic and security interests of Sri Lanka and other countries,” the statement said.
“Australia is committed to supporting Sri Lanka’s efforts to strengthen its border management capacity.”
O’Neil has been meeting with ministers in Sri Lanka since Monday, on her first overseas visit since being sworn in as home affairs minister.
Sri Lanka’s foreign affairs minister, Gamini Lakshman Peiris, and O’Neil issued a joint statement on Monday, noting “the strong bilateral cooperation between the two countries in intelligence sharing, deterrence, disruption, interception and returns under the border security operations known as Operation Sovereign Borders”.
“The two ministers recommitted their resolve to continue working together to thwart people smugglers and to prevent the loss of life and risk to livelihoods of innocent people,” they said on Monday.
O’Neil acknowledged that Sri Lanka needs assistance as it faces “very difficult economic times”.
Human Rights Watch had urged O’Neil to raise human rights during the visit, including the need to uphold the right to peaceful protest and ensure the response of security forces to any disorder was proportionate.
New Australian Home Affairs Minister @ClareONeilMP has announced she'll be arriving in Sri Lanka today
— Sophie McNeill (@Sophiemcneill) June 20, 2022
These are the recommendations @hrw made to the Albanese government recently re: the situation in Sri Lanka (full letter on human rights priorities here) https://t.co/WUUsXPPTHM pic.twitter.com/Pmaq0DYnOv
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Monday that Australia would contribute an immediate $22m to the World Food Programme for emergency food assistance to help three million people in Sri Lanka meet their daily nutritional needs.
Australia would also provide $23m in development assistance to Sri Lanka in 2022-23.
Wong said Australia would help the people of Sri Lanka in their time of need, amid shortages of food, medicine and fuel. But she also raised concerns about “deeper consequences for the region if this crisis continues”.
The assistance package is expected to support health services and economic recovery, with a strong emphasis on protecting those at risk, especially women and girls.
The executive director of the Lowy Institute, Michael Fullilove, said Australia should provide more assistance to Sri Lanka “because we’re seeing real food shortages”.
“I’m sure there are border consequences because people don’t flee their homeland for fun,” he told the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday.
“They flee it because they’re hungry and they’re poor and they are running out of options. The more that Australia [and] the international community can do to stabilise the economy in Sri Lanka, to prevent other countries from following Sri Lanka down that route, the better.”
