'Habouring snakes and raising hell'- Island Editorial

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'Habouring snakes and raising hell'- Island Editorial
'Sri Lankan refugees have caused grave concern to several countries. Although the war has ended, there are still attempts being made by certain groups to take boatloads of Sri Lankans to affluent countries claiming that they are refugees' states the Island Editorial on Monday (Oct 25).
In a timely editorial posted the Island further asserts the 'boat people' drama- a heinous propaganda stunt by anti-Sri Lankan and sleuths of the LTTE terrorist outfit.
Full text of the editorial follows.
Canada is adopting tough measures to battle human smuggling. Prime Minister Stephen Harper's anti-human smuggling Bill to 'prevent human smugglers from abusing Canada's immigration system', if passed, is sure to give a turbo boost to his country' campaign to hold human smugglers at bay. However, some of its provisions considered draconian have come under criticism and the speculation is that the bill may have to be amended before its passage. A section of the Canadian media has urged the Harper government to critically study the bill before rushing it into law.
Several other foreign governments have felt the need for tightening their lax immigration laws which have proved to be a boon for human smugglers and turned their countries into havens for illegal immigrants.
Sri Lankan refugees have caused grave concern to several countries. Although the war has ended, there are still attempts being made by certain groups to take boatloads of Sri Lankans to affluent countries claiming that they are refugees.
The LTTE and its agents smuggled thousands of Sri Lankans including their activists to the West for several reasons. Refugees are a political issue that can be used to bring pressure to bear on foreign governments and influence their foreign policy towards Sri Lanka. The LTTE once successfully employed this method to jolt some Tamil Nadu politicians into taking on Sri Lanka. Refugees have also helped the LTTE with its anti-Sri Lankan propaganda as evident from the 'boat people' drama that has attracted global media attention. Funds from the economic refugees masquerading as the victims of Sri Lanka's conflict have been one of the main sources of the LTTE's revenue, which is also augmented with large amounts of money extorted from the expatriates who do not make voluntary contributions to the LTTE' war chest. Politically, the LTTE has used refugees to create sizeable block votes in the developed countries and exchange them for favours from unscrupulous politicians thus manipulating their governments. In the West, where electoral politics is characterised by voter apathy, these block votes mean a lot to power hungry politicians willing to stoop to the level of prostituting their privileged positions to advocate terrorism. The LTTE has also made generous contributions to political campaigns in those countries for this purpose with the help of funds from the economic refugees.
In most cases, the LTTE has carried out its refugee rackets with the connivance of some Colombo-based western diplomats who compromised themselves either for money or out of sympathy. Some foreign visa officers who served in Colombo have been arrested, prosecuted and punished for bribery. Western governments ought to keep a watchful eye on their visa officers in countries like Sri Lanka, where economic refugees get visas over the counter while genuine visa applicants are shamed and rudely turned away.
That the LTTE has been involved in forging passports and visas is only too well known. (How human smugglers conduct their illegal operations with the help of forged travel documents is lucidly explained in Gregory David Roberts' phenomenally enthralling 933-page book, Shantaram, which, based on a true story, is a must read for all diplomats, immigration officers and police personnel dealing with illegal immigrants.)
While the western governments that played host to the LTTE during Sri Lanka's war are struggling to rid their countries of illegal immigrants, there has been reported an increase in the number of Sri Lankan refugees returning home from India. Last week, 67 of them came back with the help of UNHCR. According to the Indian government statistics, as of July 2010, there were 71,654 Sri Lankan refugees in India living in 112 camps and 32,467 staying elsewhere.
The return of refugees from India has given the lie to the claims by the Tamil Nadu politicians and other LTTE apologists that the situation in Sri Lanka's North and the East has not improved since the end of the war.
The developed world which has let the grass grow under its feet over the question of illegal immigrants and accommodated even terrorists and their sympathisers in the garb of refugees, finds itself, as a pithy Sri Lankan saying goes, in the same predicament as a person who 'goes out of his way to harbour venomous snakes under his sarong and raises hell when he gets stung'.
Courtesy: The Island