COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
facilities. Each returnee underwent a further interview regarding their mode and route of
travel to the UK, what they had been doing in the UK and checks to ascertain any
criminal activity previously in Sri Lanka.
―On completion of the SIS/CID interviews, the returnees were placed back in the main
seating area. As soon as passports/travel documents were reunited with the returnees
they were allowed to proceed. The first returnee was allowed to proceed at 1435hrs.
Representatives from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) spoke
individually to each returnee to hand over a travel grant in Sri Lankan Rupees
equivalent to £50, to enable the returnee to have the means to travel to their onward
address anywhere in Sri Lanka, and for overnight accommodation where required. Each
returnee provided contact details to IOM.
―All of the returnees were given either my business card or that of my colleague at the
British High Commission, and were advised to contact us if they had any questions or
concerns.‖
25.45 On 16 December 2011 BBC Sinhala 532 reported that:
―A group of failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers deported from UK on Thursday [15
December 2011] were questioned at Colombo airport and released, police said.
―Human rights groups including Freedom From Torture (FFT) has said that it has
gathered evidence that demonstrates that prisoners in Sri Lanka are still being illtreated.
―Police said any action against the deportees, if any, would be decided only after
analysing their statements recorded by the police Criminal Investigation Division (CID).‖
25.46 Additional information on the issue of treatment of returnees is available from the
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) document Information on the
treatment of Tamil returnees to Sri Lanka, including failed refugee applicants;
repercussions, upon return, for not having proper government authorization to leave the
country, such as a passport, 22 August 2011, LKA103815.E, accessible from this
weblink.
25.47 The IRB Response to Information Request of 22 August 2011 533 noted:
―After seeking information from Sri Lankan government officials, mission staff and other
in-country stakeholders, an official from the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka
stated the following in his correspondence with the Research Directorate:
―The screening process is the same for all persons returning to Sri Lanka - whether
voluntarily or by escort. The process is not impacted by ethnicity.
532 BBC Sinhala, Deportees 'questioned and released',
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/12/111216_police_deportees.shtml date accessed 27
January 2012
533 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Sri Lanka, Information on the treatment of Tamil
returnees to Sri Lanka, including failed refugee applicants; repercussions, upon return, for not having
proper government authorization to leave the country, such as a passport, 22 August 2011,
LKA103815.E, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4e784eab2.html date accessed 27 January 2012
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.
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