Sri Lanka External Affairs Minster Prof. G.L. Peiris said that the asylum seekers, who are trying to reach Canada, are economic migrants and not fearful refugees.
In an interview with ‘the Star’ the Minister said that “There is no legitimate basis for an application for refugee status at all. The changes which have come about in this country in recent months remove any fear on the part of a community of people, groups of people, or individuals of systematic persecution. The people who are now asking for refugee status are doing so for economic reasons, not because they fear for their lives. Okay, that is part of human nature. Everybody wants to improve their lot in life. “They want to go to greener pastures. That is fine. But to ascribe that to atrocities that are alleged to be taking place in this country, or to hide behind a smokescreen of imagined delinquencies or wrongdoings is, to say the least, disingenuous and it also does harm to the country.”
The Canadian High Commission in Colombo recently conducted an internal study and examined a limited number of case files of Sri Lankan Tamils who had been granted asylum in Canada since the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in May 2009. In more than half of the cases, the refugees had later returned to Sri Lanka after receiving Canadian citizenship and passports.
“It certainly raised some eyebrows,” Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said recently in an interview with the Star in New Delhi. “It’s a limited sample size but we do have a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest there’s a lot of people who gain protected status and return to their original country. We believe there is widespread abuse of our asylum system.” To help stem the flow, the RCMP is set to open its first office in Colombo, officials said, part of a new effort to prevent migrants from setting out for Canada. Earlier this week, 155 Tamils were arrested in Bangkok. Reports suggest Canadian officials may have had a hand in tipping off Thai officials about the group.
Peiris also pointed out that Australia has suspended its processing of refugee applications from Sri Lankans.
Source:http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/news/24332.html
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