Rohingya in Lanka should not be repatriated without risk evaluation: HRCSL

ECONOMYNEXT - Rohingya asylum seekers who were rescued from a boat off Sri Lanka’s northern Mullevaikkal coast on December 19 should not be repatriated without evaluation of the risks of enforced disappearance detainees faced in Myanmar, the Human Rights Commission Of Sri Lanka has said.

- BY NISHENI ATAPATTU

“The Commission clarified that the obligation not to repatriate any persons to their home country when there is a risk of enforced disappearance is not only an international obligation by which Sri Lanka is bound,” HRCSL said in a statement.

“It is also clearly found in Sri Lanka's domestic law in section 18(1) of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Act of 2018.

“Therefore, the Rohingya asylum seekers cannot be repatriated without a clear evaluation of the risks of enforce disappearance they face in their home country.”

The HRCSL statement followed a meeting on the situation of the Rohingya asylum seekers at the Sri Lanka Air Force Camp in Mullaitivu.

The meeting comprising HRCSL officials Justice L T B Dehideniya, Prof Farzana Haniffa, Dr Gehan Gunatilleke, and representatives from the Ministry of Public Security, Department of Immigration and Emigration, and Sri Lanka Air Force, reviewed the implementation of the recommendations arising from the commissions observations made in January 2025.

The following key matters were discussed: a) Nature of the detention centre: The state officials present at the meeting clarified that the detention centre located within the Sri Lanka Air Force Camp was not a temporary centre but a permanent centre gazetted under relevant provisions of the law. The HRCSL pointed out that there is confusion with respect to the state institution under whose authority the centre falls, and the officials clarified that the relevant authority solely responsible for the centre was the Department of Immigration and Emigration. Sri Lanka Police is responsible for providing security within the centre, and Sri Lanka Air Force officials are only responsible for regulating entry into the camp premises. The officials also reassured the HRCSL that officers of the Commission would be granted access to the centre without the requirement of prior notice.