UNHCR: Stop deportations!

Sri Lanka has been accused of violating international law through its treatment of - mostly - Pakistani asylum seekers. Since August 1, 88 Pakistanis have been deported from the Indian Ocean nation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday, August 12.

"Fundamentally, this is a breach of the principle of no forced returns. That's a clear violation of international law," said Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UNHCR, told AFP news agency.

According to the UNHCR, there are currently 157 asylum seekers in Sri Lanka, of whom 84 are from Pakistan and 71 are either from Afghanistan or Iran. Many of them are members of Ahmadiyya, Christian or Shia Islam minority groups and risk persecution in their home countries.

"We are very concerned at the continued deportations that are happening. We want [them] stopped," Edwards said.

Placed on flights

"Some of the latest deportees had their passports and asylum-seeker certificates seized last week. They were told to go to Colombo airport, where they were placed on flights to Pakistan."

Edwards added that in some cases, the deportees had been ripped apart from their families, whose other members had been allowed to stay.

Chulananda Perera, the controller of Sri Lanka's Immigration and Emigration Department, told the news agency Reuters that authorities were deporting at least 10 people every day because they had overstayed their tourist visas.

According to the foreign ministry in Colombo, the number of refugees or asylum seekers has risen by 700 percent over the past year, with a total of 1,560 asylum seekers and 308 refugees recorded as of the end of this June.

sb/ipj (Reuters, AFP)