Switzerland deports more Tamils to Sri Lanka

Switzerland deported at least two Eelam Tamil families to Sri Lanka last month, with at least one person injured during the deportation as officers beat a man, according to the Migrant Solidarity Network.

“I cannot believe and accept it,” said one of the deported Tamils, who called the actions of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Migration “totally inhuman”.

One of the Tamils deported was reportedly picked up unannounced by the police from the asylum camp in Enggistein, taken to Zurich airport and put on a flight to Sri Lanka.

^{Photographs: Migrant Solidarity Network.}

Several Tamils have died in Swiss detention, with at least three confirmed deaths.

Last year, Tamil asylum seeker Naguleswaran Vijayan committed suicide in Swiss detention.

On February 15, 2022, Nesurasa Rasanayagam died in Switzerland’s Gampelen camp. No cause of death was ever officially identified and his family were only informed of his death two weeks later. Despite their requests, his body was cremated in Switzerland.

In 2021, a group of four Swiss guards were acquitted over their roles in the death of a 28-year-old Tamil woman at a prison in 2018, after they delayed medical attention following a suicide attempt for 19 minutes, leaving her face down and naked on the floor.

That same year, the Daily Mirror reported that Tamil asylum seekers who were deported from Germany and Switzerland would be handed to Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

The deportations come despite continued the continued torture of Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan state. Last month, another Tamil youth was tortured to death, with Switzerland’s ambassador to Sri Lanka even stating that her government was “deeply concerned” over the incident.