Human Rights Watch (HRW) have issued a press release demanding that the UK suspend immediately deportations of Tamils with links to the LTTE or those that may have been politically active against the Sri Lankan authorities in the UK.

Extracts from the press release follow:

“The Sri Lankan security forces have long used torture against people deemed to be linked to the LTTE,and growing evidence indicates that Tamils who have been politically active abroad in peaceful opposition to the government may be subject to torture and other ill-treatment.

 

"A Tamil woman whose asylum claim had been rejected in the UK returned to Sri Lanka in May 2009. She said she was detained, questioned, and subjected to torture including sexual abuse by security agents, and imprisoned for five months at an army camp.

"She told Human Rights Watch that officials accused her of being a fundraiser for the LTTE in the UK and showed her video clips of her holding a banner critical of the Sri Lankan government in a public demonstration.”

London director for HRW, David Mepham said:

“In its haste to be tough on failed asylum seekers, the British government is turning a blind eye to compelling evidence that Tamils deported to Sri Lanka risk torture on arrival,”

“The UK government has not explained why it condemns Sri Lanka’s use of torture but rejects evidence before the UK Border Agency that demonstrates the danger of torture to Tamil deportees.

"It is time for a serious rethink so that what the UK says in its foreign policy is reflected in how it acts in its immigration policy.”

See also HRW’s Document containing cases of Sri Lankan deportees allegedly tortured on return here.