UK UPPER TRIBUNAL CONFIRMED THAT TAMILS STILL REMAINS AT REAL RISK OF ILL-TREATMENT IN SRI LANKA. ***************************************** The Upper Tribunal has substantially rewritten its previous guidance on the approach to be taken to Tamils seeking asylum in the UK. The ‘twelve risk factors’ which previously formed the framework for considering cases have effectively been discarded. Instead, the Tribunal has identified four categories of person who are generally considered to be at risk. These are essentially: people who are heavily involved in activities in the Tamil diaspora (although not people who have simply attended demonstrations); journalists and human rights activists; individuals who have given evidence to the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission implicating the Sri Lankan security forces in alleged war crimes; and people who appear on a ‘stop’ list at Colombo Airport, which means those against whom there is an outstanding court order or arrest warrant. In addition the Tribunal agrees with the view of UNHCR that, in the case of people who are known or suspected by the GoSL to be former LTTE members, a full investigation is required into whether they are at risk of being persecuted. The Tribunal approves evidence suggesting that former LTTE members are detained for “rehabilitation” or prosecution by the authorities. The Tribunal also overturns earlier assumptions by the Home Office that it is not possible to use bribery in order to escape from detention or to leave Sri Lanka via Colombo Airport. It also accepts that mental health treatment is inadequate and allows the appeal of one of the appellants on the basis that he would not receive proper treatment for his serious mental health condition UK based leading Human Rights Lawyers Mr Arun Gananathan and Mr Geeth Kulasegaram who also represented this case at the UK Upper Tribunal stated that this is a landmark decision and a significant victory for the Tamil community. -----------by Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice------------ The full judgement can be read in my next post: The video report is here: youtube/watch?v=10ThzRO-gfQ
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:00:35 +0000
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