Photo courtesy of The Independent
Today is World Refugee Day
On December 19, 2024, fisherfolk in Mullaitivu Sri Lanka observed a boat in the sea, few hundred metres away from the shore, crowded with many people and children. The number was later confirmed to be 116 including 57 children. The fisherfolk visited them in fishing boats, provided food and drinking water and also took a doctor, local journalists and Navy officers. Despite pleas from fishermen to bring them ashore, and many in the boat being unwell and not having enough food, they were kept at sea most of the day by the authorities. In the evening of the same day, the Navy took them to Trincomalee through a further journey by sea and they landed in Sri Lanka only on the morning of December 20, 2024. Twelve were remanded and other 104 were ordered to be handed over to the Department of Immigration and were temporarily detained at a school in Trincomalee until December 23. They were then taken to an Air Force camp in Mullaitivu and have been detained there since then. The 12 in remand custody were transferred to the Air Force camp in January 2025. On December 30, the Air Force camp was officially declared as a Temporary Immigration Detention Centre from December 23 by the Secretary to the Minister of Public Security.
Human Rights Commission’s observations and recommendations
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka was denied access to the detention centre on December 26, 2024 despite having legal authority to access any place of detention and detained persons in Sri Lanka. The Commission expressed concern about this in a letter to the President and also summoned senior government officials to the Commission. The Commission was able to visit the detention centre on January 9, 2025 and continued to monitor the situation with further visits and discussions with state authorities. On May 9, 2025, the Commission issued a media release, which noted the importance of addressing the specific needs and vulnerabilities of children and infants at the detention centre and made a series of recommendations to enhance the protection and welfare of female detainees and children. Although the Department of Immigration and Emigration informed the Commission that a focal point to receive aid from concerned persons and groups had been appointed, there has been no response by the Department to offers of assistance. The Department had also rejected the Commission’s proposal to allow access to journalists. The Commission’s statement clarified the principle of non-refoulement based on international and domestic legal obligations. The Commission also stated that the use of the term illegal migrants in contrast to asylum seekers and the claim that the persons detained were not asylum seekers because they may have entered Sri Lanka illegally reflects a misunderstanding of the concept of asylum seeker and that any person who seeks asylum in another country may be appropriately termed an asylum seeker. The Commission urged the Department facilitate UNHCR’s access the asylum seekers, which is yet to happen.
Testimonies of the asylum seekers
The group had been at sea for about 16 days, facing storms and two of the three boats had sunk and six people had died with their bodies thrown to the sea. Their testimonies after landing in Sri Lanka clearly indicated the persecution they had faced in Myanmar including killing of family members, aerial strikes, bombings, burning of houses, lack of freedom of movement, lack of communication, large scale displacement and lack of access to UN and other aid agencies. They had decided to buy a boat by selling lands, jewellery and belongings, paying different parties. These testimonies indicate they are asylum seekers fleeing well-founded fear of persecution rather than those being trafficked or engaged in illegal migration. Fishermen in Mullaitivu who themselves had faced similar persecution during the war and were the first to visit and assist the Rohingyas when their boat was still sea, had understood them to be people fleeing persecution and seeking protection. They had pleaded with the Navy to bring them ashore and categorically state that the government should take care of them.
Documents in relation to the genocide case filed by Gambia against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice, reports by the UN Human Rights Council’s Fact Finding Mission, UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Myanmar and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and numerous other international groups have found Rohingya to be stateless and facing serious persecution.
Responses of the Sri Lankan government, opposition politicians and civil society
Despite these, on December 29 the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment said that the group of Rohingyas will be considered as illegal migrants. The Minister of Public Security was quoted in the media on January 3 as saying the they might be deported to Myanmar and that the government had even shared details of the people with the Myanmar government and was having discussions with them. On January 9, the Minister was quoted in media as saying that according to investigations and intelligence information received, it clearly shows that it is a human trafficking scandal and that they were not refugees. The Minister said that intelligence reports indicated up to 100,000 maybe brought to Sri Lanka. This statement, though never realised, is likely to have led to fears among public about an influx of asylum seekers and refugees to Sri Lanka.
These statements led to criticism and questioning, including by the opposition leader and other opposition MPs. On January 9 and 10, 2025, protests were held in Mullaitivu where the boat was first seen and in Colombo calling on the government not to deport Rohingyas and treat them in line with international law.
On January 23, 2025, government ministers assured parliament that no decision has been taken to deport the Rohingyas who came by boat in December and that the government would act humanely and in accordance with national and international laws. Significantly, the Sri Lankan Minister of Justice also recognised the persecution and displacement faced by Rohingyas in parliament.
UNHCR’s roles in Sri Lanka
The agreement between United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Sri Lankan government signed on December 7, 2005 facilitates UNHCR’s international protection and humanitarian assistance functions in favour of refugees and asylum seekers in Sri Lanka. The government agreed to grant unimpeded access to such people at all times. The Terms of Reference offered by the government to UNHCR on May 30, 2006 in relation to asylum seekers and refugees has allowed UNHCR to issue asylum certificates, giving opportunity to the government to object entry of specific individuals based on grounds such as national security or public security.
UNHCR closed its Sri Lankan office in December 2024, stopping refugee status determination for asylum seekers and facilitating of permanent resettlement for refugees. In December 2023, UNHCR had stopped the monthly living allowance and educational support offered to refugees. UNHCR’s presence in Sri Lanka is now reduced to liaison officer based in office of the UN Resident Coordinator. This has created a situation of uncertainty, stress and desperation for about 500 refugees and asylum seekers (including the Rohingyas) in Sri Lanka.
UNHCR must continue to fulfil its unique roles in refugee status determination and facilitating permanent resettlement, if needed, getting reinforcements from regional and international offices. The UN country team in Sri Lanka should also come forward to protect and support asylum seekers and refugees, especially in terms of housing, food, education and healthcare. Other countries, which have supported refugees for many years by providing permanent resettlement, must continue to do that. More countries must also come up with schemes such as private sponsorship programmes, which has assisted refugees to get permanent resettlement without involvement of UNHCR.
Challenges to Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has provided limited care to a very small number of asylum seekers and refugees by tolerating their temporary stay while UNHCR processes their applications. Sri Lanka had also provided limited healthcare and protection when they faced hostility and violence. Asylum seekers and refugees have not been detained in Sri Lanka except on few occasions for short periods. Sri Lanka has also not resorted to deportation of asylum seekers except on few occasions. Asylum seekers and refugees have not had to produce passports or visas to temporarily stay in Sri Lanka.
But there has been some alarming indications of intolerance and hostility towards asylum seekers and refugees from the government this year. These include repeated references to Rohingya asylum seekers as illegal migrants, detaining them for six months and denying UNHCR access to them. Concerned persons and groups who want to provide aid, journalists and lawyers have also been denied access to them. Last month, a woman who had temporarily been in Sri Lanka as a refugee and subsequently become a citizen of the US was deported when she tried to visit her husband in Sri Lanka despite having had Electronic Travel Authorization and a return ticket. This indicated refugees and asylum seekers stay in Sri Lanka is considered as overstay and they are blacklisted from returning to Sri Lanka after they have resettled in other countries. Refugee rights activists have faced harassment and intimidation with two organisers of the Mullaitivu protest being summoned by police for questioning in Colombo from Mannar and Mullaitivu.
In the short term, the government must provide better care to refugees and asylum seekers, providing them employment opportunities, healthcare, education for children, housing, food and including them in state’s social welfare schemes. Sri Lanka must also ensure asylum seekers and refugees will be entitled to fundamental rights such as non-discrimination, right to information, freedoms of expression, assembly, association and not to be arbitrarily arrested. In the long term, Sri Lanka must ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its optional protocols and enact domestic legislature to facilitate the granting of refugee status and permanent resettlement to at least a small number of persons, as part of Sri Lanka’s commitment to address global refugee crisis.