We are appealing for you to express your opposition to the scheduled deportation of Mr Arunthavanathan Mathan. Mathan has been detained since 1 August and has now been moved to a holding centre near Gatwick Airport as the Home Office prepares to deport Mathan.
We request the immediate halting of the deportation process and Mathan’s release to allow him to process the fresh asylum claim that he has submitted.
We particularly ask you to phone through complaints to Brook House Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport on 01293566500 or 01293 566559 demanding the release of A Mathan.
A model letter is below. You can use it as it is or adapt it.
Please email complaints to:
complaints@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk;
mayt@parliament.uk;
With copies to: info@tamilsolidarity.org,
He is being held at:
Brook House
Perimeter Road south
Gatwick Airport
West Sussex RH6 0PQ
Background info
The situation he faces should he be forcibly returned to Sri Lanka is very dangerous. Last October the Guardian newspaper reported that: “The UK continues to deport Tamils seeking political asylum to Sri Lanka, despite strong evidence that the security forces systematically use torture against those suspected of dissident activity five years after the end of the country’s civil war.” Since then there has been a change of government but the new president was a minister in the previous regime, which carried out the massacre of an estimated 100,000 Tamils.
The recent Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (16 September 2015) details continuing human rights failings in Sri Lanka, and highlights the dangers to Tamils being deported back to Sri Lanka.
Paragraph 83 of its report makes the general point: ‘The security forces, police and intelligence services have enjoyed near total impunity and have not undergone any significant downsizing or reform since the armed conflict [which ended in 2009].’
Earlier in the report, paragraph 21, it states: ‘Thirty-seven per-cent of the cases [of torture and sexual violence] in the report [by NGO Freedom From Torture] concerned individuals who had returned to Sri Lanka after the conflict, a few of them rejected asylum seekers.’
The Freedom From Torture’s report is, ‘Tainted Peace: Torture in Sri Lanka since May 2009’, and was published in August 2015.
Mathan needs our help now – but he is also a brave activist. He has played an important role in Tamil Solidarity. This puts him further at risk should he be deported. Mathan has been involved in campaigns for justice for the Tamils but also for other oppressed peoples.
To send him back now would be to risk the life and well-being of a human rights activist.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want more info.
Model letter
complaints@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk;
mayt@parliament.uk;
With copies to: info@tamilsolidarity.org
To whom it concerns at the Home Office and at Brook House Immigration removal centre,
Re: demand for immediate release of Arunthavanathan Mathan and halting of his planned deportation
I am writing to you to express my opposition to the scheduled deportation of Mr Arunthavanathan Mathan. Mathan has been detained since 1 August and has now been moved to Brook House Immigration Removal Centre near Gatwick Airport as the Home Office prepares to deport Mathan.
I request the immediate halting of the deportation process and Mathan’s release to allow him to process the fresh asylum claim that he has submitted.
The situation he faces should he be forcibly returned to Sri Lanka is very dangerous. Last October the Guardian newspaper reported that: “The UK continues to deport Tamils seeking political asylum to Sri Lanka, despite strong evidence that the security forces systematically use torture against those suspected of dissident activity five years after the end of the country’s civil war.” Since then there has been a change of government but the new president was a minister in the previous regime, which carried out the massacre of an estimated 100,000 Tamils.
The recent Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka (16 September 2015) details continuing human rights failings in Sri Lanka, and highlights the dangers to Tamils being deported back to Sri Lanka. Paragraph 83 of its report makes the general point: ‘The security forces, police and intelligence services have enjoyed near total impunity and have not undergone any significant downsizing or reform since the armed conflict [which ended in 2009].’
Earlier in the report, paragraph 21, it states: ‘Thirty-seven per-cent of the cases [of torture and sexual violence] in the report [by NGO Freedom From Torture] concerned individuals who had returned to Sri Lanka after the conflict, a few of them rejected asylum seekers.’
The Freedom From Torture’s report is, ‘Tainted Peace: Torture in Sri Lanka since May 2009’, and was published in August 2015.
Mathan has played an important role in Tamil Solidarity. This puts him further at risk should he be deported. Mathan has been involved in campaigns for justice for the Tamils but also for other oppressed peoples. To send him back now would be to risk the life and well-being of a human rights activist.
I trust you will act as a matter of urgency to intervene to stop this gross violation of human rights,
Yours,
XXX
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