Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers in the UK may be at risk of torture if returned to Sri Lanka, according to a landmark ruling by a British tribunal.
The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal has ruled that Tamil asylum seekers could be at risk of torture if deported to Sri Lanka. The ruling is to be used as a test case for future examination of cases from Tamil asylum seekers even if all claims will still be evaluated on an individual basis. The ruling was based on a 2006 report by the UNHCR claiming that individuals suspected of having Tamil Tiger affiliations, including relatives, were at risk of human rights violations by authorities or government-sponsored paramilitary groups. Previous rulings had found that only individuals who had been actively involved with the Tamil Tigers risked being subject to human rights abuses by the authorities.
The Sri Lankan authorities have denied allegations of human rights abuses by the security forces in a recent Human Rights Watch report.
Sources
UK in landmark Sri Lanka ruling, BBC, 8 August 2007; European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Weekly Update, 15 September 2007,
