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| Wednesday, 18 February 2004 |
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STRASBOURG, Tuesday (AFP) The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday gave the Netherlands the green light to expel two Sri Lankan Tamils, saying they would not face a real risk of torture if expelled to their homeland. The court said it "found that no substantial grounds had been established for believing that the applicants, if expelled, would be exposed to a real risk of being subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment." "In both cases, the court considered that, even if the applicants were apprehended on arrival at the airport in Colombo or subsequently in the course of an identity check, given the current climate in Sri Lanka, it was unlikely that they would run a real risk of being subjected to ill-treatment." The two Sri Lankans, hailing from a region under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), told the court they arrived in the Netherlands in 1995 after fleeing their homeland in the wake of ill treatment on suspicion of belonging to the rebel Tamil group. The court said in a statement that it "could not ignore the very real progress that had been made which had led to a substantial relaxation of the previously precarious situation for Tamils arriving or staying in Colombo." The Tamil Tigers have waged a drawn-out campaign for an ethnic Tamil homeland in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. The conflict has cost more than 60,000 lives since 1972. |
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