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Sri Lanka denies abuse of returning asylum seekers
Jul 03, 201410:43 PM
Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, on Thursday rejected claims of human rights abuses and harassment of asylum seekers being returned to the island nation.
Asked what would happen to those who are returned to Sri Lanka, he said they would face the magistrates court and be released on bail.
“If there is criminal evidence of such people, they would be punished and put through the normal process,” Admiral Samarasinghe told Sky News.
The Australian government is unrepentant in its refusal to discuss Tamil asylum seekers reportedly being sent back to Sri Lanka, amid claims it has thrown its moral compass overboard.
The government will not confirm reports they have been or would be handed over to Sri Lankan authorities after being intercepted trying to reach Australia by boat.
Handing them back would constitute a violation of Australia’s responsibilities under the United Nations refugee convention.
The reports say one boat came from India with 153 Tamil asylum seekers, including about 30 children, and a second, carrying 50 people, might have sailed from Indonesia.
But for almost a week, Australia Immigration Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Tony Abbott have said the government’s policy is not to divulge ‘on water’ operations.
‘The Australian government ... is always cognisant of our international obligations and relevant conventions,’ Mr Morrison also said on Thursday.
Mr Abbott said Sri Lanka was a peaceful country no longer plagued by civil war.
‘I don’t say it’s a perfect country,’ Mr Abbott said.
There are also reports that Australia is screening the Tamil asylum seekers at sea via video link, and some will be handed into Sri Lankan custody, also at sea, after being asked just four basic questions.
The UN refugee agency has expressed concern about any processing short cuts that ‘may risk putting already vulnerable individuals at grave risk of danger’.
Asylum seekers must be properly screened for protection needs in a way they can understand and lets them explain their needs, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement.
The Tamil Refugee Council accused the Australian government of not just ignoring human rights abuses but becoming an eager facilitator.
‘Australia’s moral, ethical and legal compass has been lost at sea,’ Tamil Refugee Council spokesman Trevor Grant said.
Labor’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, demanded the government come clean with the Australian people.
Meanwhile, Mr Morrison has confirmed an eight-week-old Australian-born baby is among a group of 14 asylum seekers from four families sent from the South Australian Inverbrackie detention centre to Darwin.
They will be transferred to Christmas Island because they have been deemed fit to return to the island, Sky News reports.
