Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to help ensure that the international community (a) upholds the rights of Tamils living in Sri Lanka and (b) ensures that Tamils are not subject to (i) prosecution and (ii) state harassment in the event that they engage in peaceful protests in that country.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK is working closely with international partners on a new resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council. This resolution will provide a framework for continued international engagement on human rights and post-conflict accountability in Sri Lanka. The resolution will highlight concerns about the protection of minorities, and will call on the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that the human rights of people in all of its communities are protected.
The Minister of State for South Asia and Minister responsible for Human Rights, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, has raised the importance of protecting the rights of all communities, including minority groups, on several occasions with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, most recently during calls on 9 February and 22 January respectively. We will continue to engage with the Government of Sri Lanka to underline the importance we attach to this issue.
Officials from the British High Commission in Colombo will continue to monitor closely events linked to the right to peaceful protest.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what (a) meetings and (b) discussions officials from the UK High Commission in Sri Lanka have had with Tamil community protests on (i) the resettlement of military occupied land and (ii) relatives that disappeared after being taken into military custody.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Officials from the British High Commission in Colombo regularly meet with Tamil community representatives in Sri Lanka to discuss issues such as land returns and missing persons, including meetings with representatives and families of the disappeared as recently as October 2019. During her visit to the north of Sri Lanka in October 2019, the British High Commissioner also met organisations and individuals active on these issues.
The British Government regularly discusses human rights and reconciliation with the Government of Sri Lanka, including through encouraging the implementation of UN Human Rights Council resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1. We firmly believe that this is the best framework for establishing truth and achieving justice and lasting reconciliation to ensure that all communities in Sri Lanka can live in peace
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Sri Lankan counterpart on the status of Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The UK has called on the Government of Sri Lanka to make progress on human rights issues for all communities in Sri Lanka. The UK continues to encourage and support Sri Lanka to deliver the commitments it made to the UN Human Rights Council through Resolutions (UNHRC) 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1. A national process initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka and supported by all communities offers the best route to achieve these goals. We continue to look to Sri Lanka to deliver in full the commitments it has made to the UNHRC.
We continue to raise human rights issues in our engagement with the Government of Sri Lanka. During his recent visit to Sri Lanka on 2-3 October, Minister of State for the Commonwealth, UN and South Asia Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon met with faith and political leaders including the leader of the Tamil National Alliance R Sampanthan. He reinforced to Foreign Minister Marapana the importance of Sri Lanka delivering fully on its commitments to the UNHRC.
The UK remains committed to supporting peacebuilding, human rights and development in Sri Lanka for all its communities. We are providing funding through the Conflict, Stability and Security fund to support police reform and training, reconciliation, peace building and demining in the north of the country.
Asked by: Jim Cunningham (Labour - Coventry South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the UK Government is taking to support the protection of human rights of Tamil communities in Sri Lanka.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The UK has called on the Government of Sri Lanka to make progress on human rights issues for all communities in Sri Lanka. The UK continues to encourage and support Sri Lanka to deliver the commitments it made to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) through Resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1. A national process initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka and supported by all communities offers the best route to achieve these goals. We continue to look to Sri Lanka to deliver in full the commitments it has made to the UNHRC.
We continue to raise human rights issues in our engagement with the Government of Sri Lanka. During his recent visit to Sri Lanka on 2-3 October, Minister of State for the Commonwealth, UN and South Asia Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon met with faith and political leaders including the leader of the Tamil National Alliance R Sampanthan. He reinforced to Foreign Minister Marapana the importance of Sri Lanka delivering fully on its commitments to the UNHRC.
The UK remains committed to supporting peacebuilding, human rights and development in Sri Lanka for all its communities. We are providing funding through the Conflict, Stability and Security fund to support police reform and training, reconciliation, peace building and demining in the north of the country.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Tamil asylum seekers have been deported from the UK to Sri Lanka in each of the last nine years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
To provide the information would require a manual check of individual records which would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.
Data relating to the numbers of asylum seekers removed to Sri Lanka can be accessed in the link below:
Immigration: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-march-2019/how-many-people-are-detained-or-returned#data-tables
The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection. Each claim is carefully considered on its individual merits. We expect those with no legal right to remain in the country to leave.
Guidance used by UK Visas and Immigration to make decisions on asylum and human rights applications can be found on the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-policy-and-information-notes
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to support an international criminal justice mechanism for the human rights crimes committed against Tamils.
Answered by Mark Field
A Sri Lankan process initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka and supported by all communities offers the best route to achieve accountability for violations and crimes committed, and reconciliation, in Sri Lanka.
The United Kingdom co-sponsored the 2014 UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution 30/1, which established an investigation into allegations of serious violations and abuses of human rights during Sri Lanka's recent conflict. We welcomed Sri Lanka's co-sponsorship of a new UNHRC Resolution in March 2019, led by the UK, which rolled over Sri Lanka's commitments under Resolution 30/1 on post-civil war reconciliation and accountability. UNHRC Resolution 30/1 welcomed the intention of the Government of Sri Lanka to establish a judicial mechanism to investigate allegations of violations and abuses. It stressed the importance of independent and impartial institutions to ensure the credibility of the mechanism, and highlighted the importance of the participation of international judges, defence lawyers, and authorised prosecutors and investigators. The UK will continue to support and encourage the Government of Sri Lanka to fully implement the UNHRC resolution
Furthermore, the UK's Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) programme in Sri Lanka provides funding to the UN Peacebuilding Priority Plan, which supports efforts to establish credible and effective transitional justice mechanisms as part of Sri Lanka's reconciliation process.
Asked by: Richard Burden (Labour - Birmingham, Northfield)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Sri Lankan counterpart on the human rights of the Tamil community in that country.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK continues to encourage and support Sri Lanka to deliver the commitments it made to the UN Human Rights Council through Resolutions 30/1 and 34/1. We firmly believe that this is the best framework for establishing truth and to achieve justice and lasting reconciliation.
The UK welcomed the Annual Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 21 March 2018, which assessed progress made by the Sri Lankan government in the implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolutions 30/1 and 34/1. This found that the Government of Sri Lanka had taken some steps to address human rights concerns and to introduce more democratic and accountable government. These steps included the return of some military-held civilian land, the establishment of an Office of Missing Persons and the ratification of the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.
However, as I made clear to Foreign Minister Marapana on my visit to Colombo in October 2018, more needs to be done. During my visit, I encouraged greater progress, in particular on national accountability and truth-seeking mechanisms, and the development of new counter-terrorism legislation in line with international human rights standards. I was pleased to see that, following my visit, the Sri Lankan Parliament had passed a bill to establish an Office of Reparations. I look forward to seeing this implemented in the near future.
I continued to press for progress with Sri Lankan Speaker Karu Jayasuriya in January, as the Minister for the Commonwealth and the UN, Lord Ahmad, did with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera,
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Sri Lankan counterpart on the status of Tamil people.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK remains firmly committed to the full implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 34/1, under which Sri Lanka committed to implement a range of measures to provide for human rights, truth-seeking and reconciliation following the end of its civil war. I encouraged Foreign Minister Marapana, officials and others to continue to make progress on these commitments when I visited Colombo in the first week of October 2018. Our High Commission in Sri Lanka regularly travel to the North and East and meet with local groups, and where we have specific human rights concerns we raise these with the Sri Lankan government.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Deputy General of the Commonwealth on the status of Tamil people in Sri Lanka.
Answered by Mark Field
We have not recently discussed the status of Tamil people in Sri Lanka with the Secretary General of the Commonwealth. However, we welcomed her visit to Colombo in August, during which she offered Commonwealth support on good governance and accountability.
The UK is committed to supporting human rights and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans. While we welcome some recent progress against its UN Human Rights Council commitments, more remains to be done. I visited Colombo in October where I urged the government to make more progress, including towards the establishment of transitional justice and accountability mechanisms; devolution through constitutional reform; and the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. I also met Tamil National Alliance leader and human rights and civil society activists. In August we announced £1 million of extra UK funding to support resettlement of war-displaced families in the predominantly Tamil north and east. Total UK funding is now £7.9 million for 2016-2019.
Asked by: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the President of Sri Lanka on the security of Tamil communities in that country.
Answered by Mark Field
I have not had recent discussions with President Sirisena. However, in my visit to Colombo in early October I encouraged Foreign Minister Marapana, officials and others to continue to make progress on Sri Lanka's human rights and reconciliation commitments when I visited Colombo in October 2018.
Our High Commissioner met with President Sirisena on 1 November to raise our concerns at recent political developments.