Refugees Denied Justice, Protection In Sri Lanka - Watchdog

Sri Lanka must protect the rights of ethnic minority refugees who want to make the island nation their home after escaping violence twice, an influential rights watchdog said on Friday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st November, 2019) Sri Lanka must protect the rights of ethnic minority refugees who want to make the island nation their home after escaping violence twice, an influential rights watchdog said on Friday.

Refugees from mostly Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan fled persecution and insecurity at home only to be swept up in reprisal attacks by armed mobs in the wake of bombings at three Sri Lankan churches in April.

Amnesty International cited witnesses who saw passers-by being stopped outside refugee centers and joining the assault on their shelters.

Six months on, there has not yet been any accountability for the attacks.

"The Sri Lankan authorities failed to protect the refugees, to confront the mobs that threatened them, to investigate the attacks and to hold the perpetrators accountable," the report said.

Some 1,063 refugees and asylum seekers were forced to leave their new homes in Sri Lanka for fear of further violence. Some squeezed into the garage of a police station, while many others were moved to a camp in the north, from where they returned to their countries of origin.