As part of a strategy to stem the flow of illicit immigration from Sri Lanka, the Australian government now maintains a permanent police presence in Colombo to coordinate with Sri Lankan officials.

Australian High Commissioner Kathy Klugman told The Island: "We are working closely with Sri Lanka." A forthcoming visit by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Special Envoy John McCarthy was evidence of increased cooperation between the two countries.

McCarthy, a veteran diplomat, who had served as Australia’s High Commissioner in New Delhi since 2004 returned to Australia recently.

Australia replaced him with Peter Varghese, widely considered the country’s top spy as the head of the Office of National Assessments (ONA).

President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s office told The Island that McCarthy’s visit had been discussed when the Australian PM phoned the President a few days ago. The Foreign and Defence Ministries said that Sri Lanka would support Australian efforts to curb human smuggling.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told The Island that this should be part of their efforts to thwart attempts by the Tamil Diaspora to politicize a purely security issue.

Australia also appointed Peter Woolcott, a former adviser to the Howard government’s Foreign minister Alexander Downer, as the first full-time ambassador to tackle illicit immigration. His role involved combating people-smuggling, human trafficking and transnational crime.

Emphasising the importance of Peter Varghese’s appointment, government sources said that Sri Lanka, too, should benefit from growing strategic co-operation between Australia and India in intelligence sharing, counter-terrorism and defence.

About two weeks ago, Australia reached an unprecedented agreement with Indonesia, a key transit point for illegal immigrants to intern so-called boatpeople in Indonesia at Australia’s expense. But, to Australia’s dismay, the agreement had not produced the desired results. Subsequent investigations revealed that the majority of boatpeople had in fact been living in Indonesia and perhaps Malaysia for years.

Sri Lanka is confident that Woolcott would also discuss their efforts with both Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Government sources said that a recent surge in bogus asylum seekers had been organised by the Tamil Diaspora.

High Commissioner Klugman said that Australia wanted to explore ways and means of blocking both routes taken by illegal Sri Lankan immigrants. Sri Lankan officials, too, acknowledged that smugglers used the infamous South-east Asian route as well as big fishing craft launched from Sri Lanka. The possibility is that a vessel which sank in the Indian Ocean this week could have slipped through SLN patrols operating in the eastern and western seas. Several Sri Lankan Tamils died though some were rescued.

Foreign Ministry sources said that the crisis involving illegal immigrants had dominated politics and media in Australia for the past three to four weeks with the Australian Opposition accusing the Rudd government of turning soft on border protection, a charge vehemently denied by the government.

The Australian government has asserted that a surge in asylum seekers was due to worsening conditions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. Government sources emphasised that nothing could be as misleading as Australia’s position with regard to Sri Lanka.