Sri Lankan Asylum seekers, passports and rhetoric of Mangala Samaraweera
by A Special Correspondent
( June 3, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Since the beginning of Sri Lankan conflict thousands of Tamils left the country legally and illegally. Most of them sought political asylum in the western hemisphere. This became possible mainly because of very effective propaganda mechanism of the LTTE and lethargic attitudes of the government of Sri Lanka, more specifically, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Sri Lankan Diplomatic Missions on countering the LTTE propaganda against the country. These Tamils have successfully been able to convince the world community that they were the victims of well-planned genocide sponsored by the Sri Lanka government. In short, Sri Lanka was generally regarded as a “killing field.” However, after 9/11 incident, surfacing of fascist nature of the LTTE as well as its relations with the jihadist organizations in the world, most of the countries decided to proscribe it. The relentless efforts by later Minister Kadirgarmer contributed a lot to change perception of the western world about the LTTE. More importantly, very few of truly patriotic Sri Lankan diplomats made remarkable efforts to expose the true colors of the LTTE. When the world came to know the real face of the LTTE, Mahinda Rajapakse was able to garner support of the people of Sri Lanka as well as some friends in the international community to put an end to the LTTE atrocities wiping it out from the soil of Sri Lanka. Yet, remnants of the LTTE have been making all efforts to revive the organization aftermath of its shameful defeat. This process continues even today. In the western world still the LTTE is collecting funds and adding members to their organization.
Amidst these developments, the present government of Sri Lanka has been trying to play the role of hero without paying much attention to the present activities of the LTTE. There is no argument about welcoming those who left the country during and after the war. Yet, we cannot forget the fact the LTTE is not an organization like SLFP or UNP. Its sophisticated organizational structure in the international arena is mostly intact, although some factions are struggling to overcome the others. What is important today is the commitments of the Tamil Diaspora to continue its support to the struggle of the LTTE to carve out a separate state in Sri Lanka. They make every effort to realize their dream with or without the LTTE. More importantly, both Rajapake regime and present government have not got a clear picture of the post conflict period mentality of the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora. This is very clearly reflected in the activities of the present government, especially work of Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
Recently, Minister Samarawera made two foolish moves i.e. declaring of channel 4 claim was authentic and abolishing of existing immigration rules to issue Sri Lankan passport to every Sri Lankan left the country mostly illegally due to “fear of prosecution.” The central aims of these acts are both political and pleasing of the international community. It is political because Mangala wants to highlight that Rajapakse regime was brutal. In the case of pleasing the international community, Mangala is looking forward to paint a rosy picture that the present government honors the UNHCR resolution on Sri Lanka by relaxing the rules and regulations that prevent Tamil community returning to Sri Lanka. Another aim is to play the hero shit before the Tamil community. However, the question is whether the Tamil community is ready to buy what Magala is trying to sell.
Let’s look at this from the perspective of the Tamil Diaspora. According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka “the government had today, 1 June 2016, issued a circular ending the restrictions placed in March 2011 on the issuance of passports to Sri Lankan citizens resident abroad who, at different times, were compelled to leave Sri Lanka due to [the] conflict or political reasons.” This is completely false. According to a letter dated 31-05-2016 addressed to the Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Controller General of Immigration & Immigration that the department has suspended a letter of instructions dated 30-03-2011 due to “practical constraints faced by the applicants when submitting the requested documents for passports.” The letter is question has indicated that “no Sri Lankan citizen who has applied and gained refugee status or asylum in another country is entitled to a Sri Lanka passport.” In reality, there is nothing wrong in it mainly because if a person becomes an asylum seeker and later become a refugee, virtually he is a stateless person. Such a person cannot be considered as a citizen of Sri Lanka even though he/she possesses a Sri Lanka birth certificate and lived in the country previously, until that person withdraws his/her refugee status and ready to return to Sri Lanka. In fact, once an asylum seeker is granted with refugee status the country he is living in does not allow such a person to have a passport of Sri Lanka while holding a refuge certificate. These countries grant refugee status to a person according to the 1951 Convention. A number of criteria must be met for a person to qualify as a refugee:
• Well-founded fear of persecution
• For reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion)
• is outside the country of his nationality
• is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country
• not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
• For reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion)
• is outside the country of his nationality
• is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country
• not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.
The countries which have granted refugee status to Tamil Diaspora do not allow them to have Sri Lankan citizenship simultaneously. The moment that obtained Sri Lankan passports, the benefits granted to them will be withdrawn. Most of the countries do not have legal provisions for people to have two passports. More importantly, if a Sri Lankan holds a foreign passport, he can apply visa and visit the country and even engage in any legal business. It is not required them to have Sri Lankan passport to visit Sri Lanka.
In addition, considering the unstable political, economic and security situation in Sri Lanka asylum seekers would never think of returning to Sri Lanka. Of course, they do not have a faith in a government which failed to bring the most highlighted corrupted people of the previous government to justice. At the same time, according to the letter dated 31-05-2016 of the Controller General of Immigration, which we obtained from the department of immigration, the Sri Lankan Missions abroad have been requested to follow the instructions in the circular OM/05/[A]/2010 dated 13-07-2010 in issuing new passports to the Sri Lankans gained refugee/asylum status in other countries. Interestingly, according to the said circular “the applicant’s Sri Lankan citizenship first to be identified and verified” before issuing a passport. In this context, if a person no longer a citizen of Sri Lanka, he cannot be issued with a Sri Lankan passport. It is sad to note that either Mangala has been misled by someone or he has not been able to comprehend the true meaning of the recent Immigration Circular mainly due to his sheer ignorance. On the other hand, what Mangala has done was misleading the Sri Lankans who have sought asylum in other countries erroneously interpreting a circular for political gains.
The other factor is that Magala at this point is trying to convince the international community that the present government of Sri Lanka has been easing and relaxing the rules and regulation while preparing the grounds to fully adopt the UNHCR resolution on Sri Lanka. He wants to impress the UNHCR High Commissioner that Sri Lanka is now heading towards an era of reconciliation. He is wrong. The whole world knows that the present government failed to prosecute those responsible for human rights violation during and after the war and extra-judicial killings. This is because of the government is weak. The government has so far failed to make necessary legal preparations to adhere to the recommendations proposed in the UN resolution. The President and the Prime Minister indicated that they have embarked on a different journey towards addressing the core issues highlighted in the resolution. For example, when the PM insisted on participation on foreign experts in the process, the President, head of the government rejected the idea of participation of foreign experts. This political game of two parties has opened space for pro-LTTE groups to maneuver in the troubled water to reach its goal.
I wish to conclude bringing the attention of the world about corruptions at the department of immigration in Sri Lanka on issuance of new passports, especially to Sri Lankan Tamils abroad. Once an application is submitted to a Sri Lankan Diplomatic Mission abroad to obtain a new passport, the applicant has to pay a huge sum to Immigration Officers to expedite the issuance of a passport. Otherwise, they have to wait for a long time, perhaps a year or two. During this period, the agents of the immigration officers contact the applicant abroad and inform him/her on mistakes in the application and the documents. They asked the applicants to inform the relatives to appear before a particular officer of the Department of Immigration. At that point they ask them to pay huge sum of money to send the passport to their relatives abroad. Many officials in the Sri Lankan Embassies have been doing this business for a long time. This unpleasant practice has resulted in creating hatred towards the bureaucracy among the Tamil community. Many of the passport applicants are looking forward to returning to Sri Lanka or regularizing their visa status. Many names of the Embassy officials engaged in this business have been exposed previously but nothing was done. It is the duty of the government first to regularize issuance of passports rather than taking illogical actions just to please some sections of international community and media.
