“Over two million Sri Lankans left the country during the war and live abroad... Those countries have given them shelter and work. And our people here are attacking some 30 refugees.”
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| On September 27, 2017 Sri Lankan Buddhist and Aung San Suu Kyi supporters protest at the U.N. office in Colombo against Rohingyas (Photo: Getty Images) |
Source/Credit: The Hindu
By Meera Srinivasan | September 30, 2017
“An insult to humanity” — that is how the leftist political party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna termed the recent Buddhist monk-led attacks on a United Nations safe house sheltering Rohingya refugees in suburban Colombo. The men in robes were calling for the refugees to be deported.
The incident not only alarmed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) — the agency caring for them here — but also outraged many Sri Lankans, including politicians. Condemning the attacks, Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne slammed both the hard-line monks, calling them “animals”, and the police for “not preventing” the incident. A magistrate court has summoned three attackers, including two monks, local media reports said.
In a country where the Buddhist clergy wields enormous political power, people are familiar with the impunity that comes with saffron robes. All the same, those who are troubled by it see a condemnation by political leaders as being crucial to challenging the now-familiar, almost routine, anti-Muslim aggression seen among certain radical monk groups.
While religious intolerance is one dimension of the recent attack, what followed reflects on the Sri Lankan government’s own intent on the issue of protecting refugees. More so after it transferred the 31 Rohingya refugees to a maximum-security prison about 100 km south of Colombo. The Boosa Detention Centre rings an eerie bell for many, reviving memories of torture that detainees were reportedly subjected to during and after the civil war. Authorities have repeatedly denied the accusations. That aside, one question is hard to miss: Why should refugees, who have fled persecution back home, be made to live in an infamous prison camp with terror suspects?
Track record
Sri Lanka’s track record on giving temporary shelter to refugees is relevant here. While the country has been sheltering refugees from the region, including hundreds of Ahmadiyya Muslims, Christians and Shias from Pakistan, there have also been instances of mass deportation. In 2014, Sri Lanka deported at least 60 Pakistani asylum seekers after a court of appeal ruled that it was within the country’s right to do so. The government had argued that it had many compelling reasons, including that of national security.
The UNHCR had said that Sri Lanka was violating international law by deporting Pakistani asylum seekers by force. The agency also expressed grave concerns over the increasing arrests of Pakistani and Afghan refugees then.
The Health Ministry at the time had observed that the country risked facing serious problems, claiming that cases of malaria detected among refugees threatened Sri Lanka’s successful malaria eradication programme, for which it was expecting a WHO certification that eventually came in 2016.
While Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, what is of concern is the state’s lack of intent to assist those fleeing danger, argued a refugee lawyer, who did not wish to be named. “Even now, the refugees will be here only until they are resettled in other countries. This is temporary shelter and we don’t want to give even that,” he said.
Mr. Senaratne concurred with that view, juxtaposing the treatment of Sri Lankan refugees abroad to that of Rohinya refugees in the island. “Over two million Sri Lankans left the country during the war and live abroad... Those countries have given them shelter and work. And our people here are attacking some 30 refugees,” he said.
(Meera Srinivasan works for The Hindu and is based in Colombo)
Read original post here: Myanmar: Refugees shall be deported, or incarcerated
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