For more than a decade people smugglers have sourced their cargo from the wilds of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, and shipped them through Southeast Asian countries, where they are prepared for the trip to Australia and in some cases Canada. Luke Hunt Write for Spectrum.

But more recently, their attention has shifted to southeastern India and Tamil Nadu state, where more than 70,000 Tamils who fled decades of civil war in neighbouring Sri Lanka live in refugee camps.

The civil war has been over for almost two years after government forces obliterated the Tamil Tiger rebels and their cause, a separate homeland. Now Colombo is urging its citizens to come home, but the likes of G Amarnath are resisting.