UNITED KINGDOM – SRI LANKA

In a letter, a British official claimed that the Sri Lankan asylum seekers will be relocated to a “safe third country” which, however, has yet to be identified. The Tamil refugees had fled police pursuit and, after 18 months of imprisonment on Diego Garcia’s island, attempted suicide by swallowing needles and blades. They are currently in Rwanda for medical treatment.

London () – The United Kingdom sent a letter to two Tamil asylum seekers hospitalized in Kigali (Rwanda) after they attempted suicide, telling them that they will be transferred to a “safe third country”. The man and woman, both 22, are part of a group of refugees – including alleged victims of torture in Sri Lanka – rescued by the Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean while trying to reach Canada in October 2021.

On that date, British ships had escorted them to the island of Diego Garcia, part of the Chagos Archipelago, south of the Maldives, a group of islands that the United Kingdom calls the British Indian Ocean Territory and over which it continues to claim sovereignty. , despite a UN court ruled that they are part of Mauritius.

On March 3, five people were airlifted to a Rwandan military hospital for medical treatment after their health condition deteriorated. According to The New Humanitarianwere reportedly receiving psychotherapy for having attempted suicide after 18 months in prison, attempting to swallow needles and a pencil sharpener blade when they were told they would be returned to Sri Lanka.

At least 19 minors and 49 adults are currently being held at a military base jointly administered by the United Kingdom and the United States and built between the 1960s and 1970s after the evacuation of the population of the 27-square-kilometre island.

Many claim to have been tortured and sexually abused by Sri Lankan security forces for his alleged links to the Tamil Liberation Tigers, a separatist group that fought for independence against the Sri Lankan government during a 26-year civil war that did not end until 2009.

On March 26, one of the five people who were in Rwanda to receive medical treatment recounted in a letter the conditions of detention at the Diego García base: “They put barbed wire fences around us and keep us like animals. If send me to Sri Lanka they will torture me and beat me to death”.

In recent days, the British Indian Ocean Territory Commissioner, Paul Candler, sent a letter to the two Tamil refugees stating that they would not be returned to Sri Lanka, but rather relocated to a “safe third country” as soon as it was identified.

According to the lawyers following the case, that safe country should be the United Kingdom, but London has been working for some time to send to Rwanda – whose government was criticized for respecting human rights and not guaranteeing people’s safety – all those who arrive on British shores “irregularly”.

Some fifty people detained on the island of Diego García had their request for international protection denied and the cases are being examined by legal experts, as is the agreement between the British and Rwandan governments that was signed in 2022 to welcome immigrants. .