These asylum seekers are detained in the remote island of Christmas Island and have been denied access to legal representation or any other independent support groups. This isolation makes it easier for the Australian government to refoul them ie deport them directly into the hands of their persecutors.
The context that these asylum seekers will be sent back to is dangerous and life-threatening. Three years after the Sri Lankan government declared that the war is over, the UN Working Group on Disappearances has identified Sri Lanka as having the?second largest number of disappearance cases in the world, while the UN Committee Against Torture in an open session on Sri Lanka held in November 2011, quoting human rights organisations has said that secret detention centres are in existence in Sri Lanka. The International Committee of the Red cross in their 2012 Annual report has also stated that they have been trying to trace over 15,000 people missing in Sri Lanka.
TAKE ACTION! STOP THE DEPORTATIONS!
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