Tamils on hunger strike in Harmondsworth

From Sri Lankan Daily Mirror, 23 July 2007:

Twenty nine Sri Lankan Tamil nationals are on hunger strike at a controversial detention centre in London opposing moves by the British authorities to deport them back to Sri Lanka tomorrow, sources from London told the Daily Mirror. Earlier on July 9, two Tamil Jaffna residents, Subramaniam Aloysias Jude Christy and Kobalasamy Illayarajah who had sought refugee status in Britain after fleeing the conflict in the North started a fast unto death as their applications had been turned down and they were subsequently placed at the Harmondsworth refugee detention centre in London. However by Saturday a further 27 Sri Lankan Tamils at the same detention centre joined in the strike further complicating the issue for the British authorities.

When The Daily Mirror contacted the Harmondsworth refugee detention centre yesterday afternoon to get further details on the strike we were redirected to the Britain home office which was closed yesterday being a Sunday. "The two Sri Lankans who started the hunger strike on July 9 have not had water or food and their health is deteriorating. They are insisting they will not return to Sri Lanka because of the conflict and fear of maybe being arrested by Sri Lankan authorities once they return," a civilian source in London told The Daily Mirror after speaking to Mr. Jude Christy via telephone.

Relatives and friends are permitted to speak to and even visit the detainees at the centre. The two Sri Lankan Tamils were earlier scheduled to be deported on June 24 but after stiff opposition from the two, the deportation was postponed for tomorrow, it is learnt. The Daily Mirror also learns that another Tamil refugee who was deported from London last week was arrested in Sri Lanka and is being detained in Negombo. CID sources at the Katunayake international airport confirmed to the Daily Mirror that the immigrant was arrested on the 18th of this month and placed under detention in Negombo.

The Harmondsworth Detention Centre has been the sight of several protest campaigns against the detention process carried out by the British government. The London based rights group, 'No Borders' in a statement following a protest late last year said the British immigration policies violated the basic principles of the Refugee Convention which Britain had signed.

"By ignoring the Convention, the Government refuses to protect people's lives that are in danger, whether politically or economically. Migrants have been degraded and abused and are being treated as criminals, when their only 'crime' is to come to the UK on their own terms. The UK government's immigration policies favour locking up people without trial. Refugees are treated like 'terrorists' and perceived as a threat to national security and are held in detention for many months," it said.