(MENAFN- NewsIn.Asia) Colombo, June 18 (newsin.asia) - The Sri Lankan government, on Monday said Sri Lanka, was an ideal destination to run a global programme on maritime crime due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean.
Addressing the United Nations Security Council Open Air Formula meeting on 'Maritime Crime as a Threat to International Peace and Security', Sri Lanka's Youth Affairs and Southern Development Minister, Sagala Ratnayake said the Sri Lankan government was delighted with the decision of the Global Maritime Crime Programme of the United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to relocate the Head of the Programme and his expert team to Sri Lanka.
The teams will run global programming on drugs and crime across the Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean and Caribbean from offices in Colombo, Ratnayake said.
According to Ratnayake, Sri Lanka has also been vulnerable to drugs.
In 2016 and 2017, the Sri Lanka Police Narcotics Bureau, with the support of Sri Lanka Customs, seized over 1,700kg of Cocaine in major seizures.
This included a seizure of 928kg of Cocaine from an India-bound merchant vessel, MV Fabiola when it docked at the Colombo Port on 9 December 2016. That was the largest haul of Cocaine recorded in South Asia, with an estimated street value of Sri Lankan Rupees 12 billion, around US dollars 77 million.
'There have been reports that drug dhows have travelled eastwards towards Sri Lanka and the Maldives, as recently as February 2018, and due to legal and jurisdictional inhibitions, sharing of such information with affected States was constrained," the Minister said.
He added that as of May 31, a dhow ran aground off Innafinolhu Island in the northern part of the Maldivian archipelago, laden with 115kgs of drugs.
'We are experiencing a massive explosion of drug trafficking by maritime routes. The use of the Indian Ocean as a major drug trafficking highway – particularly for Heroin originating in Afghanistan – poses a maritime security and a maritime law enforcement challenge,' the Minister said.
He further explained that one of the major challenges was the lack of a 'legal finish' (such as prosecution) for the majority of drug seizures made within international waters in the Indian Ocean region.
He further said Sri Lanka will continue to provide political and regional support in international forums against the use of drugs and crimes.
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