Grim prospects for asylum-seekers

By Dhaneshi YATAWARA

A ferry transporting asylum seekers

A group of refugees

Last Friday 26 Sri Lankan asylum-seekers arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport after being deported by the United Kingdom. Certain agency reports said some of them had links with the LTTE. The UK Government’s decision to deport then to Sri Lanka was heavily resisted by numerous west-based human rights watchmen although two-years have already passed since the end of the three decade long terrorism. Though this is supposedly the first time Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were returned to Sri Lanka this may not be the last too.

On June 14, news reports from Ottawa, said that the Canadian Government is poised to re-introduce anti human-smuggling legislation that would include measures to punish asylum-seekers who pay smugglers to take them into Canada. The news came into limelight with the arrest of four men in Toronto by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in connection with the MV Ocean Lady, the freighter that brought 76 illegal immigrants to Canada’s West Coast over an year-and-a-half ago. The arrests are the first stemming from RCMP investigations into human smuggling networks in Southeast Asia that have brought hundreds of Sri Lankan refuge seekers to Canada, aboard two freighters.

A second ship, the MV Sun Sea with nearly 500 passengers, arrived on the shores of British Columbia last August and prompted the Canadian government to table human-smuggling legislation two months later. The bill went nowhere in the House of Commons because opposition parties rejected some of its proposals. According to Canadian news reports, the Canadian government’s intention is to send a warning to people hiring human smugglers and letting them know that if they arrived in Canada it would not be possible to immediately sponsor family members to join them as part of a reunification program.

With the social and economic turbulence that erupted due to the rise of the LTTE atrocities, many Tamil people flew abroad seeking asylum or on refugee status. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since January 2010, about 2,900 Sri Lankan refugees have returned home with UNHCR assistance. Be it asylum- seekers or refugees, it is time to pay attention to this situation developing in the country, specially tomorrow (20) being the World Refugee Day.

Geetha, a 42 year old Tamil woman, who recently returned from Tamil Nadu voluntarily, does not get much of this news though she lives in Colombo. Yet even if she does, it only adds to her misery. To protect her true identity we will name her Geetha, in support of her and her family’s struggle to settle down in their motherland and in respect of their strength that survived against LTTE terrorism. In 2008 Geetha her husband and their two kids entered Indian soil seeking help to live a peaceful life. This was the final effort of their line of struggle.

Their first attempt was to settle down in Colombo leaving their home town, Jaffna. Geetha was born and brought up in Jaffna and later she got married and enjoyed a wonderful family life blessed with two kids. Yet, the family got struck with the outbreak of the terrorist war. Squeezed by the iron clutches of the LTTE the family tried many times to escape to Colombo. Once they had to pay money to the LTTE for their escape which eventually failed. During the ceasefire in 2002 the family settled down in Colombo and the happiness lasted only a few years. With the outbreak of the Eelam War IV this family, like many families that enjoyed a decent life in Colombo had to encounter death threats and abductions for ransoms and extortion from LTTErs and their accomplices.

The menace grew into a large mafia and it was hell for Geetha and her family. Returning to Jaffna was not practical for them and as such they decided to go to India. No sooner the LTTE terrorism ended in Sri Lanka, the family returned and Geetha’s husband tried to seek a job in Canada. Before going to India the family looked at the option of migrating to Canada as refugees. Yet the human-smugglers demanded Rs. 6.5 million per head, irrespective of age.

It was a rigorous and a deadly journey through many points such as Peru and, Mexico. They valued their lives more and gave up the unpredictable journey. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 46,000 Sri Lankan refugees are in 64 countries including India, France, Canada, Germany, UK, Switzerland, Malaysia, Australia, the United States and Italy of the total number of voluntarily returned refugees, the vast majority have returned from refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and small numbers from Malaysia and Georgia. As at November 01, 2010, according to Indian government statistics, there are 70,354 Sri Lankan refugees living in about 112 camps in Tamil Nadu and 32,467 outside the camps.

The UNHCR stated that at least another 2,000 refugees have returned on their own without help and registered with UNHCR field offices.

However, the number of refugees returning on their own may be higher since all refugees do not register with UNHCR on their return. Tens of thousands of internally displaced people are returning to their homes in the North and it seems that some refugees abroad are also willing to return. The UN Refugee Agency earlier said that they expected an increase in the number of returners.

According to the UNHCR both Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran continue to host some of the world’s largest refugee populations, with 1.7 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and another million in Iran. Having defeated one of the world’s most ruthless terrorist organisations today Sri Lanka has faced different problems.

Since the thinking patterns of the people are so complicated sometimes there appears no difference in the behaviour of refugees and asylum-seekers.