Unwanted asylum seekers: Sri Lanka court gives green light to deport Pakistanis

Authorities say they are committing crimes in the country


Reuters September 02, 2014

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court on Monday gave permission to authorities to send back scores of Pakistani asylum seekers, after the government said they were a threat to the island’s security and public health.

Deputy Solicitor General Janak de Silva asked the Appeals Court to lift an earlier suspension of deportations, saying there is evidence Pakistanis are committing crimes and bringing malaria into the country, which was otherwise virtually free of the disease.

“Interim relief was vacated and the court has dismissed the application. Now all the asylum seekers are exposed to deportation if government wants,” said Lakshan Dias, lawyer of a 38-year-old Pakistani woman who complained after her husband, brother and father were detained pending deportation.

The court on Aug. 15 ordered authorities to temporarily stop deporting the Pakistanis, after the woman said her family was being forcibly sent home without having their claims properly assessed.

The United Nations refugee agency says 88 Pakistanis have been deported since Aug. 1 in what it has called a breach of international law.

The agency has called for an end to the deportations and demanded access to another 75 detained people who are awaiting deportation.

The Sri Lankan government says the Pakistanis are part of an influx of economic immigrants in the past year who have become a burden on the country’s resources and potentially compromised state and regional security.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2014.

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