Colombo: The Sri Lanka Navy on Saturday said it had arrested 88 Australia-bound illegal immigrants.
A trawler carrying the migrants was detected 220 nautical miles south of the southern port city of Galle, naval spokesman Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya said.
They are being escorted to Galle harbour and will be handed over to authorities tomorrow, he said.
The detention of the illegal migrants followed yesterday`s arrest of 36 migrants who were trying to travel to Australia.
They were arrested in the western town of Ragama and have been remanded till August 16 by courts, police said.
The latest detections in the migration scam came after Australia last month announced that all asylum seekers would be sent to Papua New Guinea for processing of their cases.
Australia has classified large numbers of people who arrive on trawlers as economic migrants last year and set up offshore processing centres in Manus Island. It has also sent back more than 1,000 illegal migrants to Sri Lanka.
PTI
