Reiterating that Australia was firm on not allowing illegal immigration, Australian High Commissioner to India Patrick Suckling cautioned that South India should not be allowed to become a hub for “people smuggling.”

“If people smuggling gets entrenched in India, it will lead to other forms of crime relating to narcotics and terrorism. Australia and India have a shared interest in ensuring that this does not happen,” said Mr. Suckling, speaking to The Hindu on Thursday.

On Sunday, 157 asylum seekers, who took a boat from Puducherry illegally, were allowed to land in Australia after being held in high seas for about a month. The group is currently housed at the Western Australia’s Curtin detention centre. The issue has created a storm in Australia’s domestic politics and had also led to litigation in a High Court. Indian officials have now been given consular access to those on the boat in an attempt to establish their identity. Mr. Suckling said it was India’s policy that it took back people if identified as Indian citizens.

When asked about the status of Sri Lankan Tamils, who are said to constitute a large chunk of those on the boat, the High Commissioner said the Indian government had offered “to consider taking back long-term Sri Lankan Tamil residents of India,” if found to have reached Australian shores illegally.

However, officials were now focussing on the instant case. “I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves because we are focussing on the identity issue at the moment,” he said.

Mr. Suckling said that as far as the current lot of 157 asylum seekers were concerned, talks were being held with India alone as they left Indian shores on a vessel with an Indian flag.

Bringing up the larger worry of “people smuggling,” he said that after the new dispensation took over in Australia recently, the issue in the Indonesian and Sri Lankan contexts was being resolved. “In the last six months, not one boat has come from Indonesia and only a tiny amount has come from Sri Lanka,” he pointed out.

Therefore, he said there was necessity to ensure that South India was not used by such smugglers to transport people illegally. “The smugglers are a deeply entrenched, complex network. What we do not want is for South India to become the next hub for people smuggling,” Mr. Suckling said.

He said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had clearly stated India’s intention to put an end to illegal people smuggling when he met Australia’s Minister for Immigration, Scott Morrison, in New Delhi last week. (The Hindu)