UN bid for Tamil to stay fails

 

A LAST-minute plea from the United Nations to stop immigration authorities deporting a Tamil asylum seeker came too late to prevent him being sent to Sri Lanka, despite claims that he faces torture.

The man has been sent back to Sri Lanka despite official Australian advice warning people against travelling to the northern city of Jaffna where he lived.

The UN human rights commissioner in Geneva had sent the urgent request to the Australian embassy in Thailand early yesterday morning in the hope of getting the man off a plane in Bangkok while on the way back to Colombo.

But the man, who The Age has chosen not to name at his family’s request, was taken back to Sri Lanka, where supporters have been unable to contact him.

The Immigration Department said the UN request came while the man was on the plane from Bangkok, and did not raise any information not already considered in rejecting his refugee claim.

“In this instance, timing and practicalities clearly precluded such consideration,’’ a spokesman said.

 

UN bid for Tamil to stay fails.