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UK to deport 60 asylum seekers on Tuesday

British authorities are set to deport 60 failed asylum seekers to Sri Lanka on Tuesday the 23rd of October, according to reports.

A specially chartered plane is set to take the asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, departing from an undisclosed terminal at Heathrow Airport reported Ceylon Today.

The scheduled deportation comes just days after the Foreign Affairs Committee released a report which called on the British government to take greater care in evaluating the risk of torture to deported asylum seekers returning to Sri Lanka.

See our earlier post: UK Foreign Affairs Committee criticises asylum seeker removal to SL (17 October 2012)

Last month, a last-minute court injunction managed to grant at least a dozen Tamil deportees a reprieve, whilst several NGOs including Human Rights Watch and Freedom From Torture documented cases of Tamil deportees being tortured upon arrival in Sri Lanka.

See Tamils Against Genocide report on the risk posed to deported Tamils "Returnees at risk" here.

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