Harassed Sri Lankan Tamils flee homeland to go West

With Western governments tightening immigration procedures, desperate immigrants even put their lives at risk. Recently 15 Tamil immigrants were discovered trying to sneak into Britain on the roof of a truck carrying frozen potato chips from France.

British Home Office Junior Minister Mike o’Brien was quoted in newspapers there saying the refugees could easily have met an icy death and were lucky to be alive. But there is no guarantee that Colombo is any safer for the island’s minority community. “It is a disadvantage to be Tamil nowadays. You are an instant target for harassment by security authorities,” Sivaram said. “We are treated like second-class citizens in our own country,” says Maheshwary Velautham, a Tamil lawyer and secretary of the Forum for Human Dignity.

“In Colombo, young Tamils are picked up from cinemas, hostels and other places and kept in local police stations until they are cleared,” says Velautham who also runs a free legal service for hapless Tamils. In recent months, the rebels have stepped up a bombing campaign in the capital which has targeted the country’s central bank, the World Trade Centre and a couple of posh hotels. The attacks have led to intensified searches and raids on Tamil residences. “When these searches take place, it hurts the people and frightens them … not knowing what to expect from the soldiers or police. The neighbours also begin to think they may be connected with the Tigers,” says one respected Tamil, who is a university professor. But things can be far rougher for Tamils visiting the Sri Lankan capital.

Once in the city, Tamils checking into hotels and lodges still risk arrest or worse. Recently a Tamil woman who works for the government in the north was arrested in a small hotel when it was raided. She was taken away on charges of prostitution and dumped in jail along with other prostitutes. The frequency of such arrests has increased since Tamil rebels raised the level of attacks. More than 600 Tamils have disappeared between June and August 1996 during a government crackdown.