British judge orders halt in deportation of Tamil asylum seeker

A British judge has halted the removal of a Tamil asylum seeker who was due to be deported today (31st May), after evidence from a Human Rights Watch report released earlier this week.

The ruling, passed just hours before the scheduled flight, stated “the recent Human Rights Watch Report dated 29.05.2012 suggests that there may be new evidence relevant to the risk of ill treatment”, and the judge thus ordered the Secretary of State to restrain from removing the applicant to Sri Lanka.

The judgement was passed after a judicial review application was filed and will be applicable to all other Tamil asylum seekers who face the same risk of “arbitrary arrest and torture”, as described by Human Rights Watch.

See our earlier post:

HRW: UK should 'immediately suspend' deportations (29 May 2012)

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