COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
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7 MARCH <strong>2012</strong> SRI LANKA<br />
facilities. Each returnee underwent a further interview regarding their mode and route of<br />
travel to the <strong>UK</strong>, what they had been doing in the <strong>UK</strong> and checks to ascertain any<br />
criminal activity previously in Sri Lanka.<br />
―On completion of the SIS/CID interviews, the returnees were placed back in the main<br />
seating area. As soon as passports/travel documents were reunited with the returnees<br />
they were allowed to proceed. The first returnee was allowed to proceed at 1435hrs.<br />
Representatives from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) spoke<br />
individually to each returnee to hand over a travel grant in Sri Lankan Rupees<br />
equivalent to £50, to enable the returnee to have the means to travel to their onward<br />
address anywhere in Sri Lanka, and for overnight accommodation where required. Each<br />
returnee provided contact details to IOM.<br />
―All of the returnees were given either my business card or that of my colleague at the<br />
British High Commission, and were advised to contact us if they had any questions or<br />
concerns.‖<br />
25.45 On 16 December 2011 BBC Sinhala 532 reported that:<br />
―A group of failed Sri Lankan asylum seekers deported from <strong>UK</strong> on Thursday [15<br />
December 2011] were questioned at Colombo airport and released, police said.<br />
―Human rights groups including Freedom From Torture (FFT) has said that it has<br />
gathered evidence that demonstrates that prisoners in Sri Lanka are still being illtreated.<br />
―Police said any action against the deportees, if any, would be decided only after<br />
analysing their statements recorded by the police Criminal Investigation Division (CID).‖<br />
25.46 Additional information on the issue of treatment of returnees is available from the<br />
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) document Information on the<br />
treatment of Tamil returnees to Sri Lanka, including failed refugee applicants;<br />
repercussions, upon return, for not having proper government authorization to leave the<br />
country, such as a passport, 22 August 2011, LKA103815.E, accessible from this<br />
weblink.<br />
25.47 The IRB Response to Information Request of 22 August 2011 533 noted:<br />
―After seeking information from Sri Lankan government officials, mission staff and other<br />
in-country stakeholders, an official from the Canadian High Commission in Sri Lanka<br />
stated the following in his correspondence with the Research Directorate:<br />
―The screening process is the same for all persons returning to Sri Lanka - whether<br />
voluntarily or by escort. The process is not impacted by ethnicity.<br />
532 BBC Sinhala, Deportees 'questioned and released',<br />
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/12/111216_police_deportees.shtml date accessed 27<br />
January <strong>2012</strong><br />
533 Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Sri Lanka, Information on the treatment of Tamil<br />
returnees to Sri Lanka, including failed refugee applicants; repercussions, upon return, for not having<br />
proper government authorization to leave the country, such as a passport, 22 August 2011,<br />
LKA103815.E, http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4e784eab2.html date accessed 27 January <strong>2012</strong><br />
The main text of this <strong>COI</strong> <strong>Report</strong> contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section<br />
to 2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
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