Dateline: Oct 10

People smugglers are preying on Sri Lanka’s vulnerable with lies of safe passage to places like Australia.

Tonight Dateline investigates the new wave of boats and how Australia is trying to stop them.

Since the start of Operation Sovereign Borders, successive governments have heavily restricted information about what happens when boats are intercepted. Human rights groups say Australia no longer carries out fully fledged asylum seeker processing at sea, but rather a watered-down screening process in which it seems no protection claims are recognised.

Despite this, the Australian government maintains that no one processed at sea is subject to refoulement – the forced return of an asylum seeker or refugee to a country where they would face persecution.

8:30pm Tuesday on SBS.