UK government urged to stop deportations to Sri Lanka (VIDEO)

The largest British organisation treating torture victims from around the world took the unusual step of calling its government to stop all forced returns to Sri Lanka.

London based  Freedom from Torture (FfT) says that it is deeply troubled by the political crisis in Sri Lanka and the prospect of escalating brutality by the military, police and intelligence services.

Sri Lanka was thrown into political instability after President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as the prime minister in a bid to unseat current PM Ranil Wickremesinghe.

“Rajapaksa's presidency was a reign of terror for countless in Sri Lanka, especially in the minority Tamil community,” said FfT.

Most responsible on earth for torture

“There is probably no person on earth responsible than he for the torture that we fixed the damage in our rehabilitation centres here in Britain,” Sonya Sceats, Chief Executive of Freedom from Torture told JDS.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

FfT says it has forensically documented more than 80 cases of Tamils who were tortured after returning from UK.

Almost all of them were tortured under Mahinda Rajapaksa's watch, added Sonya Sceats.

In 2017,  FfT named Sri Lanka as the leading state in torture for the sixth consecutive year.

'Reconvene parliament'

The UK Minister for Asia and the Pacific who recently visited Sri Lanka has said that he is concerned by ongoing political developments in the country and following "this fast-moving situation" closely.

"I urge President Sirisena, in consultation with the Speaker, to reconvene the parliament immediately in order to give the democratically elected representatives of the Sri Lankan people their voice at this time," said Minister Mark Field.

FfT has called upon the British government  "to turn this concern into a suspension of forced returns until we can be sure the UK won't send anyone back into Rajapaksa's clutches"☐

© JDS
  

left

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka

  • JDS is the Sri Lankan partner organization of international media rights group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The launching of this website was made possible by the EU’s European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), of which Reporters Without Borders is a beneficiary.