Negombo Prison on Sri Lanka's west coast, where most of the failed asylum seekers returned from Australia are sent.
Negombo Prison, near Sri Lanka's international
airport, where most of the Sri Lankans whose asylum seeker claims in
Australia have been rejected are sent. Photo: Ben Doherty
Australia's co-operation with Sri Lanka has been seriously
questioned in a new report by international human rights lawyers, who
say that it is deeply flawed and jeopardises asylum seekers' attempts to
seek safety.
The report by the Human Rights Law Centre condemns
Australia's ''stopping the boats'' policy in Sri Lanka where asylum
seekers are often sent back to Sri Lankan militaries, the authorities
they are fleeing from.
The Abbott government last year gave the Sri Lankan navy two
Bay-class patrol boats, recently retired from surveillance service in
Australia, to intercept asylum-seeker boats before they leave Sri Lankan
waters.
Australia continually claims that no asylum seekers sent back
to Sri Lanka have been harmed, but documents obtained by a freedom of
information request established at least one instance where Australia
received a complaint that a man had been "severely tortured" upon his
return from an Australian-run detention centre, the report said.
''The Australian Federal Police officer in Colombo, despite
being in the police building where the complainant was being held,
declined an invitation to meet with the complainant to assess his
well-being,'' it said.
Australia's co-operation with the Sri Lankan authorities has
effectively erected barriers to prevent all Sri Lankans travelling by
boat from seeking asylum, without providing alternative safe pathways,
the report said.
''Australia has formed a dangerously close relationship with
the Sri Lankan military and police to block Sri Lankans from leaving
their country to seek protection,'' author of the report, Emily Howie,
said.
''The Sri Lankan military is implicated in allegations of war
crimes and crimes against humanity.  Torture and mistreatment including
the rape of men and women, is reportedly widespread in police
custody.''
The report calls on the Australian government to support
efforts by the international community to conduct an investigation into
the alleged war crimes being committed in Sri Lanka.
Australia has continually refused to back an independent
international investigation into alleged war crimes during the Sri
Lankan civil war as the government of the island nation rejected a new
report detailing "credible" claims of civilian bombings, extrajudicial
killings and other abuses.

More to come