COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
―There are several teenage mothers in the homes and also cases where engaged
women have become pregnant by men other than their fiancés. In these latter cases the
Salvation Army does their best to resolve the family matters between the woman and
her fiancé to ensure the child has a future. Without a named father there will be issues
with registering the child‘s birth. However, she added that only a few single mothers
actually end up going back to their families, especially those with illegitimate children,
because the culture of Sri Lanka has not changed that much over the years. With
regard to women returning from the Middle East, Salvation Army discuss matters with
the parents/families of the mother and often the mother and baby are accepted back
into the family because the ―children look beautiful with their Middle-Eastern features‖.
We were told that the Haven carries out a lot of counselling with the women to address
their mentality. They try to encourage them to find employment or convince the father of
the child to marry the women for the sake of the child.
―We asked the Salvation Army spokesperson whether she had encountered any cases
from the North and East of the country where women had become pregnant by military
from either government forces or LTTE. She stated that to date no such cases had been
referred to the Salvation Army.
20.31 The same source 362 added:
―The spokesperson told us that following the birth the mother is given one month to
decide what they want to do with the child. If no decision has been made after one
month they counsel the mother to make a quick decision as they normally require them
to leave the centre and release her bed for other admissions. If they decide to keep the
child, the first step is for The Salvation Army to contact the mother‘s family.
―If they decide to have the child adopted, the Salvation Army will contact the Childcare
Probation Department to arrange adoption and actually deal with all of the legalities,
including attending Court. In their experience, only two out of ten mothers decide to
have their babies adopted and they are put up for adoption to local couples first. Failing
that, the Department inform potential foreign couples who have expressed an interest in
adopting children from Sri Lanka.
―The other alternative is to have the child entered into a children‘s home. This is often
an option advised to mothers under the age of 18, or who are jobless, as it allows the
mother to maintain contact should they attain a position where they can have the child
back.
―There was some academic research carried out on those persons seeking abortions in
Sri Lanka which suggested that pregnancy outside marriage was still relatively rare; see
(http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=51193).‖
20.32 On 9 September 2010 Irin 363 reported that:
―Fifteen months after the end of fighting between Sri Lankan government forces and the
Tamil Tigers, women in the north are taking up a new and challenging role as
breadwinners - with more and more becoming day labourers to support their families.
362 British High Commission Colombo, Letter dated 30 January 2012
363 Irin, Sri Lanka: Women take over as breadwinners in north, 9 September 2010
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=90429 date accessed 6 October 2010
144 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.