Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, has urged the German government to "immediately halt" its planned mass deportation of Tamil asylum seekers which will put them in "harm's way."
In a letter addressed to the German government, he wrote:
"It is shocking that Germany, within a week of co-sponsoring a resolution alleging rights violations by the Sri Lankan government at the United Nations Human Rights Council would send the complete opposite message by planning the deportation of possibly a hundred Tamil asylum seekers into the hands of the very government they are seeking asylum from."
Yesterday, the German authorities conducted mass raids and detained Tamil refugees across the country, mainly in Nordrhein-Westfalen and Baden-Württemberg, as it looks set to deport as many as 100 to Sri Lanka on March 30.
Ponnambalam said that the deportation would undermine international efforts to bring justice to victims in Sri Lanka. “Apart from the anguish and fear this will cause the Tamil Diaspora in Germany, it will have a very negative effect on the current international efforts to address serious human rights violations that have occurred and are continuing to occur in Sri Lanka,” he wrote.
The German authorities’ detention and treatment of Tamil asylum seekers in custody have sparked concerns amongst the Tamil diaspora.
In response to these deportations, the German Tamil community have organised demonstrations in Büren and Pforzheim in front of detention facilities as well as Berlin and Düsseldorf in front of government buildings. These protests will occur on March 28 and 29.
