Refugees and asylum seekers:

Govt to establish committee on re-admission

by Manjula FERNANDO

The Cabinet has approved a proposal by External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris to establish a National Coordinating Committee on Re-admission (NCCR), to guide and negotiate future re-admission agreements with States where Sri Lankan refugees and asylum seekers are present.

This proposal received the Cabinet last week.

The NCCR will comprise officers from different stakeholder

institutions such as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Defence Ministry and Immigration and Emigration Department.

A senior official of the MEA said this body will be entrusted with powers to attend to repatriation matters such as negotiations, decisions whether to accept a particular repatriation, receiving the persons and questioning them, as well as decisions regarding their future.

The body will deal exclusively with refugees and failed asylum seekers.

Sri Lanka has already entered into bilateral agreements with a number of countries including the European Community (EC), to regulate the repatriation of asylum seekers and persons of Sri Lankan nationality who are residing in those countries without authorisation. The International Organization for Migration is assisting the Government to implement the re-admission agreement with the EC.