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| Photograph @thedharmablues |
The songwriter and hip hop artist, M.I.A (Mathangi Arulpragasam) told music fans on Friday night at the world renowned UK festival, Glastonbury, to "Stop Tamil Deportations", with dancers wearing T-shirts reading #StopTamilDeportation.
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| Photograph @Lucky20Seven |
Find a video of her act here.
Causing a characteristic stir the singer tweeted minutes before she was due to begin that the BBC had refused to broadcast her act as the T-shirts were "too political".
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BBC Glastonbury, which has been broadcasting events at the music festival live, responded quickly via its twitter account emphatically refuting the allegation of censorship.
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BBC DJ Stuart Maconie at the event also tweeted: "Don't know where M.I.A gets her info from but we fully intend to broadcast some of her set. And we're streaming it".
M.I.A's message comes as the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague pledged to investigate reports of Tamil asylum seekers being deported to Sri Lanka to face torture and sexual violence, after he came under pressure earlier this month during the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict when the Guardian newspaper reported a Tamil asylum seeker faces deportation from the UK for a second time, despite being "beaten, branded, suffocated and rape" on his first deportation. See here for more.
Australia's treatment of Tamil asylum seekers has also received persistent criticism. Most recently, two asylum seekers self-immolated for fear of deporation (here and here), whilst on Friday morning reports emerged that over 151 Tamil asylum seekers were stranded in a sinking boat by Christmas Island.
See also: M.I.A calls for justice for Tamils raped by Sri Lankan military (12 Jun 2014)
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