AUSTRALIAN JOINT AGENCY TASK FORCE DELEGATION PAID A COURTESY CALL ON THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF SLCG

The Director General-Sri Lanka Coast Guard (DG SLCG) Rear Admiral Anura Ekanayake welcomed the delegation from Australian Joint Agency Task Force (AJATF) at the Coast Guard Headquarters, Mirissa on 31^st August 2022. The delegation was headed by the Commander of the Australian Joint Agency Task Force, Rear Admiral Justin Jones and DG SLCG warmly welcomed the delegation to SLCG HQ and expressed his admiration for allocating a time slot to meet him at Coast Guard Headquarters at Mirissa.

Visiting Australian delegation was comprised of three officers from the Australian Joint Agency Task Force, Ms. Lucienne Manton the Ambassador for counter People Smuggling and Human Trafficking and Ms. Claudine Lamond, Director, Counter People Smuggling Section. This Australian delegation was accompanied by the Australian Defence Advisor to Sri Lanka Captain Ian Cain and the First Secretary, Australian Border Force Inspector Brett Zehnder.

Director General SLCG gratefully recalled the infrastructure, training and professional support have been received from the Australian Government and thankfully highlighted recent Australian Government donation to provide fuel for SLN, SLCG and SLAF fleet units to continue its anti-human smuggling operations amid the fuel crisis in the country. Furthermore, he explained the dedicated service and commitment of the SLCG to deter human smuggling, counter-narcotics and IUU fishing in the country and indicated the apprehensions made on illegal migration attempts in the past few weeks. He also explained the challenges faced in the conduct of such operations, areas where SLCG do not have direct controls in exercising proper screening, the mindset of local communities and the reluctance of fishing communities in adopting new monitoring mechanism. The DGCG indicated that the initiative taken by the Australian Government has generated tangible results in controlling human smuggling attempts in the country and the effectiveness of the collaborative effort of both parties were significant.

The delegation expressed their appreciation for the contribution of SLCG in controlling the human smuggling attempts in the country and the dedicated role played by the SLCG personnel in various capacities. They expressed that, the Australian Government is remaining dedicated to assisting Sri Lankan authorities to deal with anti-smuggling operations and they are looking forward to coordinating with other international initiatives for further improvements. They accepted the technological limitations of SLCG and assured to provide advanced training assistance to meet existing challenges. Further, delegation principally agreed to provide incentives to fishery community when fixing the Vessel Monitoring System onboard Fishing vessels which will improve the monitoring capacity of multiday fishing vessel movements.

The discussion between two parties conducted in a very cordial manner and was a good window to increase awareness and cooperation between the two countries. The delegation was able to gain a clear understanding of the actual ground situation in the country and discussed further action that could be taken to improve relation between two countries and possibilities for extending further training and infrastructure support to enhance inter-agency cooperation and interaction. The meeting was culminated with an exchange of mementoes.