More Sri Lankans to go home

28 Oct 2012, 5:53 pm   -   Source: AAP

As more asylum-seeker boats arrive in Australian waters, another three groups of Sri Lankans have returned home.

Eight more Sri Lankan men have opted to return home from Christmas Island as more asylum seekers are being transferred to the island after being plucked from boats.

The eight men flew back to Colombo on Saturday, taking to 29 the number of Sri Lankans who have returned since Friday, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said in a statement on Sunday.

That total includes 14 people who were deported from the Cocos Islands on a charter flight on Saturday.

The group of 14, which included three children, had been on the Chejan, a fishing trawler that was allegedly hijacked on October 13 off the Sri Lankan coast.

The allegedly hijacked boat was intercepted on Thursday northwest of the Cocos Islands by ACV Hervey Bay.

On Friday, seven men from Christmas Island departed Perth on a commercial flight to Colombo after volunteering to return home, an immigration department spokesman said.

He said they all arrived after new regional processing arrangements were announced in August.

Transfers of boat arrivals to Nauru for processing are continuing under those new arrangements and more would follow in the coming weeks, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Border Protection Command says it has transferred 35 people to Christmas Island after coming to the assistance of their boat north of the Ashmore Islands on Friday.

Another 62 people will also be transferred to Christmas Island after their boat was intercepted north of Cocos Islands on Friday.

People arriving by boat without a visa after August 13 this year run the risk of transfer to a regional processing country.

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