A recent anti-drug operation called “Yukthiya” (which means “justice”) is leaving hundreds of children without parents due to indiscriminate arrests.
According to Patali Champika Ranawaka, former Energy Minister and leader of the United Republican Front (URF), the police have arrested a large number of drug addicts, sometimes both parents, especially in Colombo and the suburbs. In many cases, children go hungry while their parents are in detention.
According to two Mattakkuliya residents, Kamalini Sinnarasa and Vadivel Pathmarajah, more than 100 children aged between 2 and 10 were fed for days by social service organizations and often very poor neighbours.
In some areas of Colombo, most children whose parents were taken away by the police were unable to get even one meal a day. Some children between the ages of 4 and 10 started begging along the road with their little brothers.
Furthermore, most of those arrested are unable to pay their legal fees. Although the operation has already entered its third week, no key figures involved in drug trafficking have yet been arrested. While the police justify the operation, for several critics it is a farce.
The police are accused of using excessively heavy-handed tactics, including mass arrests, and of showing “little respect for people’s privacy and dignity”. Questions also arose about the low quantity of drugs recovered during the operation.
So far, 26,476 suspects have been arrested and according to the latest data, 54,090 raids have been conducted across Sri Lanka as of January 5 with police hunting for a further 2,453 suspects. About 1,549 people were sent to rehabilitation centers.