The Sri Lanka Coast Guard is a non-military organisation unlike the Navy. "We don’t engage in any combat or offensive operations unless it is for self defence purposes where necessary, the Director General of the Sri Lanka Coast Guard, Rear Admiral (Rtd.) L. D. Dharmapriya said yesterday at the BMICH.

The Sri Lanka Coast Guard currently has only four vessels and this is totally insufficient, he said. "We have 200 personnel and within the next couple of months hope to increase our cadres to 100 officers and 900 sailors. At the moment the personnel are all former retired Navy personnel. At the end of the year, we hope to recruit more people with GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ level qualifications and undergraduates too."

Rear Admiral Dharmapriya said that he had suggested to the government to purchase at least four more vessels this year, but one vessel costs US $4 million. They hope to get assistance from countries like China, India, Japan, Australia and Germany and develop the Sri Lanka Coast Guard step by step.

The mission of the Coast Guard is to ensure safe, secure and clean maritime environment and some of its duties will include law enforcement in the coastal areas, territorial waters and maritime zones of Sri Lanka and the high seas, prevention of piracy, prevention of illegal fishing, search and rescue operations in times of natural catastrophe, prevention of illegal human trafficking, counter smuggling operations and movement of narcotics by sea.

The others who were associated at the media briefing were captain (S) D. A. Wijegunawardene (Director, Logistics) and Commander Lanka Prasada (Director, Operations).