Sri Lanka has decided to step up campaign to arrest some 50,000 military deserters, after reports that such absent soldiers were increasingly involved in crime and other illegal activities in the island nation. Sri Lankan Military spokesman Ubaya Medawala said, there the amnesty period for deserters to surrender had run out and they would be tracked down, arrested and prosecuted. Sri Lanka's military has been facing this problem of troops deserting and there had been several amnesties as well as crackdowns in the past.