Delivering a judgment that will see the deportation of hundreds of Pakistani and Afghan asylum seekers in Sri Lanka, the Court of Appeals today withdrew an interim order suspending all deportations.
The verdict was delivered when a complaint filed by a 38-year-old Pakistani woman whose husband, brother and father are currently in detention was taken up for hearing.
The petition had claimed that they were being forcibly sent home without having their claims properly assessed and that they would face persecution upon returning to Pakistan.
In her petition, she said they fled Pakistan and were seeking asylum in Sri Lanka because their lives were in danger in Pakistan. She claimed that Christians, Ahmadi Muslims and Shiite Muslims were facing persecution in Pakistan and cited a recent incident where two girls from a minority community were set on fire by a mob representing the majority community.
Presenting objections, the Attorney General stated that the government of Sri Lanka has a right to deport foreign nationals meaning in the country without visas.
He also informed the court that asylum seekers would pose a threat to national security if they continue to remain in the country as evidence has surfaced linking them to various crimes.
After considering the information, the Appeals Court withdrew the interim order thereby allowing authorities to deport the Pakistani asylum seekers, mostly from the Ahmadiyya Islamic sect, currently in the country.
On August 15, the court had ordered authorities to stop deporting Pakistani asylum seekers, granting interim relief for two weeks to suspend the deportation of all asylum seekers.
The Sri Lankan government says the Pakistanis are part of an influx of economic immigrants in the past year who have become a burden on the country’s resources and potentially compromised state and regional security.
The United Nations refugee agency says 88 Pakistanis have been deported since Aug. 1. The agency, UNHCR, says it has been denied access to another 75 people who are awaiting deportation.
UNHCR had accused Sri Lanka of breaching international law and called on it to halt the deportations and allow the agency to assess claims.
According to UNHCR guidelines, members of religious minorities such as Ahmadiyya Muslims may need protection and require particularly careful examination of their asylum claims.
Authorities deny violating any international laws, saying Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention.
The number of refugees or asylum seekers rose by 700 percent in the year through June 2014 from the previous year, says the foreign ministry. That included 1,562 asylum seekers and 308 refugees.
