According to Naval records, 123 trawlers carrying nearly 12,000 illegal immigrants have reached Australia in 2012, evading security forces. This is said to be largest wave of human smuggling in Sri Lankan history.

However, in that year, an additional 62 trawlers carrying over 3,000 have been stopped by the Sri Lanka Navy, reports add.

Twenty three of such boats were nabbed from seas off Trincomalee, 08 boats off Negombo and the remaining boats off Jaffna.

According to Navy records, the number of trawlers carrying immigrants during the last few years are as follows :

Year                         Ships nabbed           Ships escaped
2009                            07                             00
2010                            04                             04
2011                            03                             01
2012                            62                           123
2013                            16                             14
2014                            03                             00
2015                            02                             00

Massive profits
It is said that each illegal immigrant is charged around Rs. 500,000 - Rs. 600,000 in return for the perilous journey to Australia and that each boat is stocked with fuel and food amounting to Rs. 06 million.

However, we learn that a net profit of 15 million is being acquired by each boat.

Conspiracy?
However, it is suspected that this massive wave of human smuggling was backed by security forces. It is even suspected that the now Australian Prime minister Tony Abbott had a hand in this issue to inconvenience the then Premier - Julia Gillard.

When Australian elections were called in 2013, Mr Abbott defined his prime ministership by his slogan "stop the boats". In order for this to work out, illegal immigration would have needed to become a pressing issue. Therefore, doubts have been raised whether a conspiracy between Abbott and the Rajapaksa regime existed.