kollam a day after kerala police and coast guard foiled an attempt to ferry 151 sri lankan tamils to australia near neendakara in keralas kollam district a probe is on to unravel the identity of agents involved in trafficking on sunday night the police chased down a boat off neendakara coast in arabian sea after locals alerted police about the presence of 16 sri lankans near a church at mukkadu the refugees told the locals that they had come to catch a boat that carried their relatives and friends to australia the locals soon alerted the coastal police and a search conducted by the police along with coast guard spotted the boat stranded in the midsea due to some technical glitch the boat with a capacity to carry 60 people had around 135 refugees on board the people on board who were found famished were reportedly being shipped to australia via sea the detainees were later brought to the ar camp and among them 19 women and 22 children were transferred to womens cell thomson jose assistant commissioner of police said the detainees would be taken back to their respective camps in tamil nadu after verifying their details with the tamil nadu police the children and women were found squeezed together in huge ice boxes many of them were panting for fresh air when the police seized the boat by 130am everyone was brought ashore according to the police the detainees were staying in various refugee camps in tamil nadu they came in small groups by bus through madurai theni and thenmala to reach kollam on sunday some of the refugees said they were asked to give rs 1 lakh to the agents for taking them to australia and they had already paid half the amount in advance before boarding the boat the agents had reportedly assured them that they would be transferred to a ship somewhere in the deep sea and from there they would be taken to australia within 15 days about five people including the agents and the driver of the ship had escaped through the sea during the raid the boat belongs to a native of sakthikulangara in kollam a trip cut short the refugees who were on their way to australia kollam selvi is just 21 and is expecting her first baby she came all the way from the mandapam camp near rameswaram to kollam with her husband and others in pursuit of a dream on monday she sat pale and tired in the police station with 150 sri lankan refugees who were caught by the kerala police on sunday midnight while allegedly attempting to flee the country unlawfully we were ousted from our country because we are tamils in india we are not treated as citizens is there anything wrong in leaving this country for a better future selvi asks in fluent english most of the refugees detained by police here had fled jaffna killinochi and vavuniya during the civil war between the ltte