At least 142 Pakistanis arrested in police sweeps in Sri Lanka in June 2014 are being detained and are at risk of deportation, Human Rights Watch said today.
It further said that the Sri Lankan controller general of immigration should not deport members of Pakistani minority groups until the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has had full access to them and determined their need for international protection.
Most are members of the Ahmadiyya minority, though the detainees also include Christians and Shia Muslims. UNHCR has not had access to the detainees, who are being held in the Boosa detention center, although the UN refugee agency had already recognized at least six of the group as refugees.
Media reports cited Immigration Controller Chulananda Perera as saying that the government was able to deport the detained Pakistanis because it had not given them permission to register asylum claims.
"Sri Lankan authorities are threatening Pakistani minority group members with deportation at the very time when persecution of these groups is escalating in Pakistan," said Bill Frelick, refugees director at Human Rights Watch.
He added: "Preventing asylum seekers from lodging claims in no way absolves Sri Lanka from its duty not to return them to possible persecution."
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Under the principle of nonrefoulement in international law, governments are prohibited from forcibly returning refugees to places where they would be at serious risk of persecution or other serious harm.
The principle applies equally to people prevented from lodging asylum claims who would still face serious harm upon return.
The sweeps of Pakistani minority neighborhoods in Negombo, a city on the western coast of Sri Lanka, began on June 9, with authorities citing security concerns for the sweep. Negombo has been a haven for minority refugees from Pakistan.
In 2013, UNHCR registered nearly 1,500 refugee claims of Pakistanis in Sri Lanka.
