300 Lankans to be deported from UK

9 June 2011 02:15 am

Around 300 Sri Lankans are to be deported from the United Kingdom to Sri Lanka on June 16, Tamil Mirror online learns.

Sources in the UK told Tamil Mirror that the UK Border Agency had arranged a special charter flight to deport around 300 persons whose asylum requests had been turned down by the authorities.

Mr. Nishan Paramjorthy, a human rights advocate in the UK told Tamil Mirror online that some of his clients had got notice about their “removal” from the UK Border Agency.   He said most of the persons to be deported were Tamils.

The scheduled time of departure of the special charter flight to Sri Lanka, from the UK, is 5.00 pm on June 16, according to the sources.

Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils migrated to the UK during the war between the security forces and the LTTE; and an estimated 120,000 Sri Lankan Tamils live in the UK. The Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in the UK is the second largest after that of Canada.

(By R. Sethuraman)