ICC Note:

The United Nations refugee agency has criticized Sri Lanka’s recent deportation of Christian asylum seekers from both Afghanistan and Pakistan. In many of these cases, the asylum seekers were Christians fleeing both Afghanistan and Pakistan due to intense increases in persecution. Please pray for these Christians being sent back to a land where they face serious threat due to their religious identity. 

8/3/2013 Sri Lanka (Arab News) – The UN refugee agency accused Sri Lanka on Saturday of failing to respect international law by deporting Afghan and Pakistan refugees before their asylum claims could be assessed.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sri Lankan authorities arrested 214 Afghan and Pakistani nationals in an operation beginning on June 9, who are currently being held at two detention centers.

Eighteen Pakistani asylum seekers have been deported in the past two days, with 10 more facing imminent expulsion, it said in a statement, in violation of its international obligations.

“UNHCR is dismayed by these actions of the government of Sri Lanka,” the statement said. “The deportation goes against the principle of no forced return, or non-refoulement, enshrined in international customary law.”
The agency added that returning an individual to a country where he or she would face a risk of torture was also prohibited under the UN’s Convention Against Torture.

Hundreds of Pakistani Christians and Afghans fleeing persecution in their countries have been arriving in Sri Lanka seeking UNHRC protection in the capital Colombo.

Sri Lanka defended the action taken against the asylum-seekers, saying that a state’s responsibility to international obligations had to be “nuanced and balanced in the context of domestic compulsions.”

Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry also accused the UNHCR processing asylum claims too slowly, and of not taking responsibility for repatriating those whose refugee claims were rejected.

“It may be noted that in some cases, resettlement applications have been pending for over five years,” the ministry said.
The ministry added there had been a dramatic increase in the number of Pakistani and Afghan asylum seekers arriving on the South Asian island in the past year. As of the end of June, there were 1,562 asylum-seekers and 308 listed as refugees.

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