The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has listed persons suspected of the LTTE links, journalists, opposition politicians, political activists, gays and lesbians, as groups of people in Sri Lanka that are “likely to be in need of international refugee protection.”
The updated guidelines also include witnesses and victims of war crimes within the risk profiles, along with diaspora activists and individuals who previously worked in the LTTE’s civil and administrative setup, who did not receive any military training.
The report discussed in depth the risks that several groups of people faced in Sri Lanka.
It also noted the complexity of the issue and acknowledged that the list of groups it provided was not exhaustive, saying that a claim should not be "considered as without merit simply because it does not fall within any of the profiles identified”.
According to statistics quoted in the report, at the end of 2011 there were 136,605 refugees from Sri Lanka in around 65 countries, with the majority in India, followed by France, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Malaysia, the United States and Italy.
The updated UN guidelines come amidst tension over Australia’s efforts to deport several asylum seekers back to Sri Lanka.
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