Four months after the last boat from Sri Lanka carrying potential refugees arrived in Australia, the country’s Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has expressed Australia’s gratitude to Sri Lanka for acting to curb “illegal” boat arrivals, reported The Australian.

Speaking at a joint Sri Lanka-Australia security conference on transnational crime in Canberra, attended by representatives of the Defence, army, navy and customs of both countries, Morrison said that the relationship between the countries could be broadened.

“[I]n just over six months, we have ensured that we are stopping the boats and we are being true to our promises, we are doing exactly what we said we would do and it is having exactly the effect we said it would have.”

“We must apply the same focus and co-operation that we have achieved on people-smuggling to the broader challenge of transnational crime,” the minister said.

Morrison said that both countries were working together to disrupt “people-smuggling” gangs, “to deliver strong messages that Australia will not resettle anyone who arrives illegally by boat, and to improve capacity to address people-smuggling and improve border management”.

“The Sri Lankan authorities are committed to combating people-smuggling and continue to disrupt people-smuggling ventures all over the island,” he said.

“We are very grateful for the enormous efforts of the Sri Lanka Navy, the Sri Lanka Police Force and other law enforcement and prosecuting agencies.”

Mr Morrison later told The Australian: “Our more recent experience over the issue of people-smuggling, which has been very deep and very close, has opened the door to the broader opportunities of the relationship. Significant numbers of Sri Lankans are becoming Australian citizens.”

The number of people from Sri Lanka who became Australian citizens jumped 74 per cent to 3456 last year, while there were 4987 people from Sri Lanka who came to Australia legally with visas for work and for family reunions.