Caught in the middle

Executive summary

This report is about the plight of people caught in the middle of the civil war in Sri Lanka. All of those featured in the report have been tortured, some by both sides, some repeatedly. They are also caught in the middle of the risks they face should they return to Sri Lanka and the grossly inadequate behaviour of the United Kingdom Government, which has failed to guarantee them the protection they are entitled to under international law.

There were two starting points for the report. First was the large numbers of Tamils seeking help from the Medical Foundation - over a thousand since the beginning of 1997, and in 1999 the largest single ethnic group to seek our help, numbering 489, nearly 15% of all new clients.

Second was that almost half (48%) of the Home Office refusals of asylum to Sri Lankan applicants were overturned on appeal in 1998, the last year for which appeal statistics are available.

The study reviews the cases of 49 Sri Lankan clients, 47 males and two females, whose torture was medically documented by the same doctor. All 49 had been in detention in Sri Lanka for periods since January 1997, so the torture was relatively recent. The torture had been inflicted in the context of the 17-year-old civil war between Tamil separatists (LTTE, or "the Tigers" as they are known) fighting for a separate Tamil state in the north and east, and the largely Sinhalese government forces. Both sides have been responsible for human rights violations in this conflict which has so far cost over 60,000 lives. Although the present Sri Lankan Government has taken initiatives to improve the human rights situation, many measures remain inadequately enforced.

The study found the following torture methods:

• all the clients were punched, kicked and hit with heavy objects, e.g., S-LON pipes (PVC pipes filled with sand or other heavy material)
• two thirds suffered cuts from knives or bayonets, or burns from hot metal or cigarettes or both;
• more than half were suspended upside down, beaten or made to inhale noxious fumes from burning chillies or both;
• about a quarter were semi-suffocated with a plastic shopping bag sometimes smeared inside with a little petrol;
• a quarter suffered sexual abuse, including rapes of clients of both sexes, sometimes severe and prolonged;
• all reported continuing physical problems, and about 40% reported continuing psycho-logical symptoms.

Most of these Tamils were detained in the north or east by the army, while a quarter were detained by the police in Colombo. The rest were detained by pro-Government militant Tamil groups. Forty-nine clients suffered a total of 88 detentions lasting from a few days to several years. Most clients had a mixture of short and long detentions.

When the Home Office examines their applications, the reasons given in its refusal letters are often at odds with its own Country Assessment, the Country Assessment in general being more accurate.

Inaccuracies in the Home Office refusal letters include the following:

• The Home Office fails to appreciate that any Tamil can be suspected by the Sri Lanka security forces of being an LTTE sympathiser or supporter since being of Tamil ethnicity is equated with having an anti-Government attitude.
• The extent and likelihood of arrest and ill-treatment, especially in Colombo, are denied.
• Deficiencies in human rights protection by the Sri Lankan authorities are not admitted.
• The asylum seeker's credibility is questioned on inadequate grounds.
• Applicants are told they would not face persecution on return.
• Evidence of torture given in interview is ignored or side-stepped.
• There is a serious and consistent failure to bring to bear on the details of the applications, information in the Home Office's own Country Assessment that would lend support to the claims.

Before 1994, 93% of decisions on Sri Lankan asylum claims were for Exceptional Leave to Remain. Since then, 95% have been refusals. It seems very improbable that so marked a change can be due solely to a marginally improved situation in Sri Lanka. In Europe between 1990 and 1998 the recognition rate has varied from 74% (France) to 1% (UK). In Canada the recognition rate was 81% on average. It is very unlikely that these variations reflect differences among the applicants.

The report makes seven main recommendations: 1 That the Home Office use its own information in its Country Assessment to inform its view of whether an account of torture is plausible;

2 That it is not safe to return to Colombo Tamils with scars, or who do not have proper identity documents until the Sri Lankan Government ends its torture of many of the Tamils arrested;

3 That the Home Office takes seriously and engages with evidence of torture given by applicants in interview;

4 That the Home Office accepts medical evidence as sufficient proof of torture unless challenged by a medical expert of equal standing;

5 That the Home Office ceases to rely on generalised and unsubstantiated assertions about how asylum seekers behave in order to question an applicant's credibility;

6 That the Sri Lankan Government sign and ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;

7 That the Sri Lankan Government implement the recommendations designed to eliminate torture made by Amnesty International and the UN Committee against Torture.

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