A Group of 25 Sri Lankan deportees arrived from London by a special Charter flight yesterday morning for violating visa regulations there.
A Group of 25 Sri Lankan deportees arrived from London by a special Charter flight yesterday morning for violating visa regulations there.
The 26 deportees who arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport at 9.30 am in Charter flight BPA 8882, comprised 21 males and five females. Eleven Tamils and seven Muslims made up the males. Of the five females, there were two Tamils, two Muslims and one Sinhalese, Controller of Immigration Chulananda Perera told ‘The Island’ last night.
He also said that some of those deportees had allegedly violated visa regulations by being employed, while being on student visas, while the others had overstayed their welcome, he said.
The deportees were from Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee, Mannar, Batticaloa and Mannar and Colombo. "We have taken statements from them and released them immediately," Police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohan said last night.
Meanwhile, the Defence Ministry website carried a report by the BBC that the United Kingdom yesterday deported another group of 60 Sri Lankan Tamils. Those being sent back included failed asylum seekers and visa overstayers.
UK authorities deported them amidst effort by pro-LTTE elements in the UK to prevent British authorities from carrying out deportation of Sri Lankans who have failed to qualify for asylum.
The British Foreign Office in last March told the BBC that they send people back to Sri Lanka only when the British government and the courts are satisfied that an individual does not need protection.
The Foreign Office has said there had been no substantiated allegations of mistreatment of those returned from the UK.
Yesterday’s fight is the fifth such flight of deportees arrived from the UK, the Defence Ministry said in its website.
(Island)