COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court gave permission to authorities on Monday to send back scores of Pakistani asylum seekers, after the government said they were a threat to the island’s security and public health.

Deputy Solicitor General Janak de Silva asked the Appeal court to lift an earlier suspension of deportations, saying there was evidence Pakistanis were committing crimes and bringing malaria into the country, which was otherwise virtually free of the disease.

“Interim relief was vacated and the court has dismissed the application. Now all asylum seekers are exposed to deportation if government wants,” said Lakshan Dias, lawyer of a 38-year-old Pakistani woman who complained after her husband, brother and father were detained pending deportation.

The court on Aug 15 ordered authorities to temporarily stop deporting Pakistanis, after the woman said her family was being forcibly sent home without having their claims properly assessed.

Pakistani asylum seekers termed a threat to security, public health

The United Nations refugee agency says 88 Pakistanis have been deported since Aug 1 in what is called a breach of international law.

The agency has called for an end to deportations and demanded access to another 75 detained people who are awaiting deportation.

The Sri Lankan government says the Pakistanis are part of an influx of economic immigrants in the past year who have become a burden on the country’s resources and potentially compromised state and regional security.

Sri Lankan authorities deny violating any international laws, saying the country is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2014