Sri Lankan authorities should ensure the safety of two refugees and an asylum seeker whom Malaysia forcibly returned to Sri Lanka in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch said today.
All three were under the protection of the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, which recognized two as refugees and was in the process of determining the claim of the third for refugee status.
Although Malaysia is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, customary international refugee law and international human rights law require it to respect the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits countries from sending anyone back to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened or where they would face a real risk of torture or other ill-treatment.
“Sri Lanka’s treatment of these three men who have been forcibly returned by Malaysia is now in the international spotlight,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director. “Malaysia should now do all it can to stop further abuses for which it might be complicit.”
Malaysian authorities initially arrested the three men, all ethnic Tamils, on May 15, 2014, and detained them for 14 days for offenses under the immigration act. However, in a news release issued on May 25, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar announced that the three were “terrorists,” and they were returned to Sri Lanka that night without any evidence being presented to substantiate the terrorism allegations.
