Speaking ahead of the release of the UK Foreign Affairs Select Committee report, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Freedom From Torture, Sonya Sceats expressed concern at the UK government’s conduct with Sri Lanka.
In a statement released on Tuesday Ms Sceats said,
“We are increasingly concerned that the UK government puts flying the flag for business over and above human rights. Nowhere is this mercenary approach more likely to directly cause loss of life or limb than in Sri Lanka.
At a parliamentary reception just two weeks ago, Foreign Minister Hugo Swire reluctantly acknowledged our evidence of recent torture before inexplicably urging British Tamils to get on planes back to Sri Lanka to boost trade for the UK.
This promotion of ‘UK plc’ at the expense of human rights in Sri Lanka is especially horrifying because our doctors have examined more than 60 Tamils with real or perceived LTTE links who were tortured after returning from the UK since the Sri Lankan civil war. Many were specifically interrogated about the activities of the British Tamil community which is still distrusted in Colombo.
No matter how inconvenient it is, the UK government should take our clinical evidence of torture more seriously when shaping its policies towards states which are notorious for abusing human rights.”
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