COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
Country of Origin Information Service
UK Border Agency
14 September 2010
Dear colleague,
The British High Commission in Colombo regularly monitors conditions in Sri Lanka. This letter
supersedes and replaces any previous documents issued by this mission regarding the
following specific subjects:
BAIL
In Sri Lanka it is common practice to be released on bail without being charged. There are
however certain offences considered unbailable, and the Bail Act (No 30 of 1997) stipulates a
person suspected or accused of being concerned in committing or having committed, an
offence punishable with death or with life imprisonment, shall not he released on bail except by
a Judge of the High Court. Reporting conditions are usually issued when bail is granted. Anyone
flouting reporting conditions is liable to be served with a warrant for arrest. The Department of
Immigration & Emigration (DIE) are notified only when a Court decides to impound the suspect‘s
passport or an arrest warrant is issued. The details of such persons would be placed on their
alert or wanted list within their database. There is no other mechanism to ensure that the
Immigration Officers are aware of such instances. Apart from these Court powers, Immigration
Officers have no power in law to prevent persons embarking. The other method, which is rare
and case specific, is that the State Intelligence Service (SIS) can inform Immigration Officers of
individuals suspected of terrorist activity and those on a wanted list. Again the details of
suspects would be put on the DIE database. Without Court sanction, Immigration officers are
powerless to put an individual in detention if they are otherwise satisfied that they have a right to
enter or live in Sri Lanka.
ARREST WARRANTS
Formally it is difficult for the accused to be able to obtain a copy of his/her own arrest warrant.
When an arrest warrant is issued, a copy is kept on the legal file and the original is handed to
the police. An accused cannot apply for copies of the arrest warrant to the relevant court.
However, in practice forged documents are easily obtainable throughout Sri Lanka. Additionally
given ongoing and well documented concerns over corruption in the police it would probably not
prove difficult to obtain a copy of an arrest warrant, although it would probably require prior
contacts within the police service.
TREATMENT OF HIV/AIDS
We have contacted a consultant at the National STD/AIDS Control Programme to discuss
availability of HIV/AIDS drugs. He said that all of the drugs recommended by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) are available. The government provides first grade treatment for HIV
patients meeting WHO standards. Drugs for countering opportunistic infections are widely
available in pharmacies and generally prices in pharmacies are lower than in the UK. Persons
seeking treatment in any of the Government medical institutions, receive treatment free of
charge. The World Bank continues to fund a National STD/AIDS Control Programme.
BIRTH CERTICATES
292 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.