The Sri Lanka Navy has intercepted a trawler and arrested 40 illegal migrants in the deep sea area on Sunday night.
According to the Navy spokesman, the interception was made by two Navy Dvora craft after the trawler was spotted 117 nautical miles off Colombo in the deep sea area.
The arrested migrants between 17 and 41 years of age include 19 males and 21 females.
The vessels were escorted by the Sri Lanka Navy to the Colombo Harbour yesterday morning together with the migrants, who were handed over to the Colombo Port Police for further investigations.
The Navy, meanwhile, had provided treatment to some of the migrants, prior to handing them over to the police.