An Australian opposition parliamentary delegation visited the north and east of Sri Lanka to look at the post war developments in those areas, an official at the Australian High Commission in Colombo said on Wednesday.

 

The official told Xinhua that the opposition parliamentary delegation was in the eastern town of Trincomalee on Wednesday for talks with local officials.

 

Earlier this week the delegation visited the northern town of Jaffna and had talks with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), a key minority Tamil political party.

 

The Australian opposition delegation led by Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop is in Sri Lanka mainly to discuss the people smuggling issue.

 

Bishop was joined on the trip by immigration spokesman Scott Morrison and border protection spokesman Michael Keenan.

 

The group will meet with senior Sri Lankan government officials in Colombo on Thursday to talk about the people smuggling trade, the High Commission official said.

 

Australia’s Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr visited Sri Lanka last month where Sri Lanka and Australia decided to establish a Joint Working Group (JWG) to address the current issues of illegal migration, people smuggling and law enforcement.

 

Sri Lanka is an important regional partner in the fight against people smuggling. The island’s navy last year prevented over 3,000 illegal asylum seekers entering into Australia on more than 60 separate people smuggling ventures.

 

The recent return of 13 Sri Lankan asylum seekers who voluntarily flew home to Colombo brought the total number of returned Sri Lankans to almost 1,000 since August last year, the Australian High Commission said.

 

A total of 942 Sri Lankan asylum seekers have returned, both voluntarily and involuntarily, after they either failed to engage Australia’s protection obligations, or voluntarily withdrew from the asylum seeker process after arriving unlawfully in Australia by boat. (Xinhua)