29 September 2011 05:58 am
At least 50 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers, who were deported from Britain, arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) last morning on an overnight charter flight, the police said.
An official of the Airport Immigration Department confirmed that the 50 persons including eight women from the United Kingdom (UK) had arrived and investigations have already commenced at the Airport.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) confirmed that currently statements were being recorded from them by a special team from the CID.
“We were just recording statements from them, once the procedure is over we will allow them to go soon,” a senior officer of the CID said.
“We are not going to arrest them or detain them. We need to take valuable information that we have to record in our files”, he added
The State Intelligence Service (SIS) is also assisting the CID to record the statements from the deported asylum seekers, the police said.
It is also the second such batch of asylum seekers that was deported back to Sri Lanka by a Western country notably from the United Kingdom. Some of the asylum seekers are suspected for having links with the LTTE. The first such batch comprising 44 persons was deported to the island on June 17.
International Human Rights groups, especially Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticised Britain for deporting the asylum seekers who are mainly Tamils saying that they may not be safe on their return.
British authorities have stated that it only undertakes returns to Sri Lanka when it is satisfied that the individual has no protection needs. (Supun Dias) Pix by Deepa-Adikaree