Sri Lanka: Returned asylum seekers released

BBC Sinhala
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Fifty deportees flown back to Sri Lanka from Britain on Thursday were released after questioning, authorities say.

They were initially detained by the police at Colombo international airport.

United Kingdom Border Agency chartered a flight to repatriate eight women and forty two men to Sri Lanka.

Most of them are ethnic Tamil asylum seekers.

Fear of detention

Colombo airport officials say the returnees were held by police for questioning.

In June, a group of twenty Sri Lankans were sent back from Britain in an earlier chartered flight.

Human rights group Amnesty International said at least one of the failed asylum seekers had attempted to commit suicide at an airport detention facility in June following death threats he reportedly received.

Amnesty International say that the end of the conflict two years ago had not diminished the risks faced by failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers.

fear of arrest and detention

Amnesty maintains that deportees face arrest and detention upon their return.

However the orgnisation was not able to monitor the fate of earlier returnees.

"We were unable to monitor what happened to them, as we have no access to Sri lanka," Head of Asia of Amnesty International Sam Zarifi told the BBC Sinhala Service.

"Repatriation should be done only after investigating case by case of each individual. This is not the way to send people back," he said.

© BBC Sinhala