Some 350 asylum-seekers will be returned to Sri Lanka in the next twelve months and the pact is due for review in September next year. Sri Lankan authorities have agreed to issue identity documents to refugees who do not have any travel papers.
The agreement for the return of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers is the second in Europe. Under a January 1994 pact between the Swiss and the Sri Lankan governments 696 rejected refugees have been repatriated in the last 33 months.
In the first eight months of 1997 Netherlands received 14,145 refugees, an increase of 28% compared to 1996, some 1,300 of them from Sri Lanka. A plane carrying 173 Sri Lankan refugees arrived in Amsterdam’s Schipol airport in February from the Turkmenistan capital of Ashkhabad causing a furore and allegations of abuse of the asylum system.
Over 15,000 Sri Lankans have sought refuge in the Netherlands since 1984. The Dutch Foreign Affairs minister has concluded that the situation in Colombo is safe for Tamils and quoting international refugee agency UNHCR, claims that those repatriated from other European nations in 1996 and 1997 have had no problem in the Sri Lankan capital.
Refugees are concerned that other European nations may follow suit. Introduction of stricter asylum laws and procedures continue and less than 5% of Sri Lankans are granted UN Convention refugee status in European countries. Several nations, including Denmark and Norway, are deporting Sri Lankans even without formal agreements.
The Danish police have listed 154 Tamils who are in hiding after Denmark began deportations late last year. Sweden introduced a new type of air ticket visa in September for citizens of twelve countries, including Sri Lanka.
UNHCR declares in a March Information Note that orderly and safe return of rejected asylum-seekers to their country of origin could safeguard the principle of asylum for those who genuinely need protection. UNHCR further says that rejected asylum-seekers are not singled out at Colombo airport or later and people are treated fairly and humanely during Army security checks.
Human rights agencies say that Colombo conditions for Tamils have hardly changed since the British Refugee Council mission in December last year and its report in February. The situation remains precarious for Tamils with the continuing LTTE threat to the capital. President Chandrika Kumaratunge herself said in August that she was aware of innocent Tamils being detained by security forces for ransom. London-based human rights agency Amnesty International, during its August visit, uncovered evidence of widespread torture, including in Colombo.
Observers say UNHCR’s position is prompted by considerations other than the real situation in Colombo. They point to a recently leaked December 1993 internal UNHCR memo from the agency’s Sri Lankan Resident Representative to its Geneva headquarters acknowledging that the security situation for Tamils in Colombo had been deteriorating as evidenced by increased arrests.
The memo advises against freezing UNHCR guidelines, which permit Western governments to repatriate Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, on the grounds that frozen guidelines would be difficult to reinstate. Freezing the guidelines would upset the Sri Lankan authorities and in order to reinstate the guidelines the burden of proof that the situation had improved would fall on UNHCR.
The recommendation to continue the guidelines had been taken, according to the memo, on the request of the then Sri Lankan Presidential Advisor Bradman Weerakoon who had pointed out that the human rights implications of a UNHCR statement would far outweigh the consequences of deportations. The memo also says that political implications vis a vis the Sri Lankan government of any UNHCR statement need to be carefully weighed, particularly since it would be used in courts in asylum countries.
Meanwhile in mid-September the Sri Lankan Airforce uncovered a LTTE plot to blow up Ratmalana airbase, south of Colombo. Five Tigers were arrested and arms were recovered from a Ratmalana house. Police say three special teams are scouring the capital for a 14-member Black Tiger suicide squad assigned to assassinate Deputy Defence minister Anurudha Ratwatte.
Pettah Tamil businessman Gopalapillai, suspected of involvement in the airport plot, was arrested and police damaged his Wellawatte house using bulldozers. Tamil MP P Joseph says the security forces have acted in a similar highhanded and illegal manner twice before. Last year after Moses Nelson and his family members were detained for alleged LTTE links, the police demolished their home in Wellawatte.