An Australian court sentenced a Sri Lanka-born refugee to more than five years in prison Monday for helping to smuggle nearly 200 asylum seekers to Australia in a leaky boat.

Asylum seekers from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan are taking boats to Australia in record numbers, fueling a divisive debate among political parties about how they can be deterred.

Sydney spice shop owner Pathmendra Pulendren, 36, pleaded guilty this month to acting as an agent for an Indonesia-based Sri Lankan who arranged the passage of 20 ethnic Tamil Sri Lankan men in a boat from Malaysia to Australia in June last year.

Pulendren, who came to Australia by boat in 2007 as a Tamil asylum seeker, alerted police to the voyage when he discovered that 194 Tamils were to make it.

“He told police that he believed that the vessel was overcrowded and feared for the safety of the people on board,” Judge Robyn Tupman said as she sentenced Pulendren to five years and six months in prison.

People smuggling carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Pulendren must serve at least three years before he is eligible for parole.

An Australian navy patrol intercepted the asylum seekers and their wooden boat near Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, Tupman said. The boat was found leaking and unseaworthy.

Pulendren was to be paid $40,000 for his work, which included collecting money from asylum seekers’ relatives in Australia, according to the judge, AP reports.

Courtesy: Ada Derana