UN concerned about Australia sending back Sri Lankan asylum seekers
Wednesday, 9 July 2014 00:43
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REUTERS: The United Nations Human Rights Office yesterday (8) expressed serious concerns over the transfer of 41 Sri Lankan asylum seekers by Australia back to their country.
The Australian Government returned the Sri Lankan asylum seekers to their country’s authorities at sea after intercepting them in a boat suspected of illegally entering Australian waters.
Australian border patrol personnel intercepted the vessel west of the Cocos Islands last week and transferred the 41 people to Sri Lankan authorities on Sunday, Australian authorities said in a statement earlier in the week.
On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan Navy handed the group of 37 Sinhalese and four Tamil Sri Lankan nationals, including nine children, to Police in the southern port. Sri Lankan Police had said they were to be charged with leaving the country illegally and any found guilty would face “rigorous imprisonment”, raising fears about rights abuses.
Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Ravina Shamdasani questioned Australia’s brief assessment of the asylum seekers’ claims, saying such transfers should not be made in haste.
“We are deeply disturbed that Australian authorities on Sunday returned to Sri Lanka, 41 people seeking asylum, apparently without adequate screening of their protection claims and needs. International law requires that each and every case be properly and individually examined on its own merits. This is not something that can or should be done hurriedly, remotely and on the high seas, without procedural safeguards and due process guarantees for those involved. Any returns, even from the high seas or in the territorial seas of other states, must be carried out in accordance with international law, under which refoulement and collective expulsions are strictly prohibited,” she told a news conference in Geneva.
Western countries have long raised concerns with Sri Lanka over accusations of human rights violations during the final phase of the war against Tamil separatists that ended in 2009.
Sri Lanka says many asylum seekers are economic migrants, but rights groups say Tamils seek asylum to prevent torture, rape and other violence at the hands of the military.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison earlier said the 37 Sinhalese and four Tamils went through what he called an “enhanced screening process” before the handover, adding that one Sinhalese was entitled to a further refugee assessment but had “voluntarily requested” to return.
Shamdasani said the group may include people who fear being persecuted in their country, whether Sinhalese or Tamil.
“What they said was that the 41 included mostly Sinhalese and very few Tamils. What we are stressing is that just because they are not Tamil does not mean that they may not have a well-founded fear of persecution if they return to Sri Lanka. There are individuals Sinhalese who may also have also fears of persecution, for instance human rights defenders, journalists who have spoken out against the Government. It is unclear whether of the people who were sent back, there were people like this who were included, but that is why you need a process to determine whether they do indeed have a well founded fear of persecution,” she said.
