London: The United Kingdom is set to deport several Sri Lankans in a specially chartered Border Agency flight on Wednesday, which will include visa over-stayers, a handful of convicted criminals, and predominantly dozens of terrified Tamil refugees, who fear they will be horrifically abused when they go back to their nation.
The British Government maintains that people being sent out of the country will be safe from harm in Sri Lanka and failed asylum seekers on board those flights will not be ill-treated.
Among the ones being deported is Malar Rajendran, who is living proof that Britain has sent people to Sri Lanka to be tortured. She first fled her homeland in 2001 after she was arrested and beaten following the death of her husband, a low ranking member of the Tamil Tigers.
She failed to persuade the asylum tribunal that her life was in danger and she was returned to Sri Lanka in early 2009, where after minutes of touching down, she was detained.
“I was taken away at the airport and interrogated for 24 hours. Then I was taken to another place. They started ill-treating me there. I was kicked, punched, they stripped me. I was sexually assaulted and raped,” Rajendran told The Independent.
Multiple human rights groups have documented cases where those returning to Sri Lanka have been severely tortured. Human Rights Watch has detailed 13 credible cases where failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers from Europe have been returned and tortured since the end of the civil war in 2009, the paper said. (ANI)
