Tamil asylum seekers to be forcibly deported from UK
[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2012, 02:42 GMT]While the British Government prepares to welcome Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse to the Royal Jubilee pageant, dozens of failed Tamil asylum seekers are to be forcibly deported to Sri Lanka today, despite objections raised by human rights groups, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) that there is well founded fear of torture of the returnees. Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) a US-UK based activist group released a research report Tuesday documenting details of evidence of the "risk of persecution upon return simply by virtue of the fact that they sought asylum abroad and also because of imputed political opinion regarding involvement with or sympathy for the LTTE."
"TAG's report presents these sources of evidence showing how failed asylum seekers may face risks either simply by virtue of their status as failed asylum seekers, or due to imputed political opinion regarding LTTE involvement or support especially when returning from places such as the UK that traditionally have very active Tamil diaspora communities," Ms Jananayagam, U.K's spokesperson for TAG said.
Britain's The Independent reported, "[t]he forced removals come as Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was the architect of Sri Lanka's final victorious push three years ago against the Tamil Tigers – a military offensive which defeated the brutal insurgency group but also led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians – flies into the UK to join the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
"Human Rights Watch has documented 13 credible cases over the past two years in which failed Tamil asylum-seekers from Europe have been tortured after landing in Sri Lanka, and warns that those cases are likely to be "just the tip of the iceberg,"" the Independent further said.
Tamil returnees in general also face danger as they visit to the NorthEast to claim their ancestral properties taken over by the military during the war. Recent killing of a Canadian Tamil killed during such a visit has highlighted this danger.
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