Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defence rejected claims of torture, accusing Tamil refugees of torturing themselves in an effort to claim asylum.
"There are many places where asylum seekers with the advice of Solicitors get themselves scarred and burned," an article posted on Tuesday by the MoD on its official website read, claiming that refugees paid to be burnt with cigarette butts or hot rods.
"The journey in obtaining asylum entails agreement of the following physical tortures: being burnt with cigarette butts, being beaten with hot metal rods, [and] being cut and scarred to show physical torture."
Dismissing the documentary - 'Sri Lanka's Unfinished War' - by a former BBC journalist, Frances Harrison, as "very much a piece of fiction", the article called on British authorities to "arrest the evil minds involved in the asylum racket making money out of a desire to want to live in a First World Nation".
See here for full post on the MoD's website.
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