{"id":49535,"date":"2012-07-27T13:12:58","date_gmt":"2012-07-27T13:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=49535"},"modified":"2012-07-27T13:12:58","modified_gmt":"2012-07-27T13:12:58","slug":"deported-tamil-refugee-released-in-sri-lanka-recants-in-staged-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/deported-tamil-refugee-released-in-sri-lanka-recants-in-staged-press-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Deported Tamil Refugee Released In Sri Lanka, “Recants” In Staged Press Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colombo Telegraph –<\/strong><\/p>\n

Refugee Action Collective spokesperson Sue Bolton said today that she believes the statements made by Anthony in the press conference were statements made under duress.\u00a0Bolton further said that she believed that \u201cIt is not surprising that Anthony agreed to the press conference after 16 hours of interrogation without any legal representation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The statement below was released by the\u00a0Refugee Action Collective\u00a0in Melbourne this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Deported Tamil asylum seeker interrogated for 16 hours then released but still in danger<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dayan Anthony after his release<\/p><\/div>\n

Distraught family members of deported Tamil asylum seeker Mr Dayan Anthony have finally been reunited with him. Anthony was deported on July 25.<\/p>\n

Anthony was interrogated for 16 hours after being handed over to the Sri Lankan police intelligence unit (CID) at Colombo airport. During this time, the Sri Lankan police refused to give the family any information.<\/p>\n

In a scene reminiscent of hostage dramas when hostages are paraded before camera and forced to say the words of their captors, Anthony was forced to address a media conference where he recanted his claims of previous torture.<\/p>\n

Refugee Action Collective spokesperson Sue Bolton said today that she believes the statements made by Anthony in the press conference were statements made under duress.<\/p>\n

Bolton said that she believed that \u201cIt is not surprising that Anthony agreed to the press conference after 16 hours of interrogation without any legal representation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is highly likely that it was a condition of Anthony\u2019s release that he recant about his previous experience of mistreatment and torture. It is also highly likely that he was threatened during the interrogation in order to get his agreement to recant.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Human Rights Watch has documented\u00a0\u00a0a dozen cases of asylum seekers being tortured after being deported from Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cReports of Dayan\u2019s comments such as, \u2018Sri Lanka has become the safest place on the earth after the LTTE was wiped out from the country\u2019 sound totally unbelievable and sound like a script prepared by the CID for its own propaganda purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are calling on the Australian government officials to publicly report what they witnessed at Dayan\u2019s questioning and to explain why they were not present for the entire interrogation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnthony\u2019s family is now terrified for his safety. If Australia and Sri Lanka weren\u2019t allies, the Australian government would have loudly condemned the charade of a press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe family has good reason to be afraid. In a recent case, a Tamil refugee was deported from Britain, interrogated at the airport then released, only to be re-arrested later and tortured.<\/p>\n

Bolton added that there were many problems with what happened to Anthony. Anthony\u2019s sister in Melbourne wasn\u2019t allowed to visit him before he was deported.<\/p>\n

When his sister realized that he was being deported, the immigration department refused to reveal what flight he would be on so that he could be met by a lawyer as well as his family.<\/p>\n

The Australian government ignored a request from the United Nations to stop the deportation while Dayan Anthony\u2019s case is investigated by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.<\/p>\n

Then, when the plane landed in Colombo, the Australian officials handed Dayan Anthony over to the Sri Lankan police rather than to his family.<\/p>\n

Bolton said that the Refugee Action Collective is calling on the Australian government to:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0intervene and seek a guarantee from the Sri Lankan government that Anthony Dayan and his family not be harmed in any way.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Seek the return of Anthony Dayan to Australia where his application for asylum can be reviewed.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Halt all forced deportations to Sri Lanka<\/p>\n

Bolton also said that there are problems with the asylum assessment\u00a0\u00a0process in Australia, if someone such as Dayan Anthony, whose life was clearly in danger in Sri Lanka, could have his asylum claim rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe treatment of Anthony since arriving in Sri Lanka demonstrates that the immigration department in Australia made a huge mistake in rejecting his claim for asylum. Tragically, rejections of asylum claims can result in a returned asylum seeker being tortured or killed.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Refugee Action Collective and other refugee groups are stepping\u00a0\u00a0up the campaign to stop further deportation and are seeking union and community support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":49536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[3212,3211,3210],"class_list":["post-49535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories","tag-deported-tamil-asylum-seeker-news","tag-deported-tamil-refugee-news","tag-the-refugee-action-collective"],"yoast_head":"\nDeported Tamil Refugee Released In Sri Lanka, "Recants" In Staged Press Conference - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/deported-tamil-refugee-released-in-sri-lanka-recants-in-staged-press-conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deported Tamil Refugee Released In Sri Lanka, "Recants" In Staged Press Conference - 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