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Exploited in a crisis: why are Sri Lankans getting on boats bound for Australia? A Sri Lankan asylum seeker boat in 2016. Despite a change in government, Labor has committed to continue the Coalition’s turnback policy. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images Poor and vulnerable people fleeing Sri Lanka are being met by Australian boat turnbacks and ‘enhanced assessments’ that may breach international law Get our free news app; get our morning email briefing “I thought if I travelled to Australia, I could earn more money and lead a better life,” Jayan* says from his modest home, in a coastal village in the north of Sri Lanka. A fisherman by trade and a member of Sri Lanka’s Tamil ethnic minority, Jayan is familiar with boats and was asked to fix the ageing vessel that was to take him to Australia, alongside a desperate handful of men, women and children. The boat made it ...