COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
Annex E
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE
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.
Return to contents
Below are listed in chronological order (most recent first) the complete text of letters from the
British High Commission in Colombo to the UK Border Agency referred to in the text above.
Country of Origin Information Service
UK Border Agency
1 March 2012
Dear colleague,
Re: UKBA Charter Flight of Returnees – 28/29 February 2012
A flight chartered by the UK Border Agency specifically for the return of Sri Lankan nationals
who did not qualify for leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, left London on 28
February 2012 bound for Colombo. The departure time was delayed due to the late arrival of
the operating aircraft. Flight BV8842 arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport at 1045hrs on
29 February 2012 with 52 enforced returnees, many of whom were failed asylum seekers. The
ethnic split of the returnees was 29 Tamil, 13 Sinhala and 10 Muslim, and there were 45 males
and 7 females. The returnees were in possession of their own valid national passport or an
Emergency Travel Document issued by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London.
Prior negotiations had taken place in both London and Colombo between the UK and Sri
Lankan governments under the 2004 bilateral readmission agreement in order to facilitate the
redocumentation of the returnees, the necessary authorisations for the aircraft, and the smooth
arrival and processing of the returnees on arrival in Sri Lanka. The experience gained during the
previous UKBA charter flights in June, September and December 2011 allowed all parties to
review procedures ahead of the flights‘ arrival. It had been agreed by the government of Sri
Lanka that UKBA could return up to 60 returnees on the flight.
On arrival the aircraft was positioned on a stand some distance from the main terminal building.
It was met by the handling agents, Sri Lankan Airlines, and airport security officials. A UKBA
Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) was brought over to the terminal building ahead of everyone
else by the handling agent and handed copies of the final manifest listing the names of the 52
returnees to DIE officials, along with their travel documents and other identity documents. Two
235