Britain grants Tamil asylum seekers rescued at sea ‘safe-country’ move

Two Tamil asylum seekers receiving medical treatment in Rwanda after being rescued from the Indian Ocean by the Royal Navy will be taken to a safe third country, a British commissioner has ruled.

The man and a woman, both aged 22, are among dozens of Tamil refugees, including alleged torture victims, who were stranded on the island of Diego Garcia in October 2021. They had been travelling in a boat hoping to reach safety in Canada but had to be escorted to the island by the Royal Navy after problems with their boat.

Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, which the UK calls the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and continues to claim sovereignty over despite a UN court ruling that they are part of Mauritius.

Five people were airlifted to a military hospital in Rwanda on 3 March for treatment for the complex trauma from which they are suffering after enduring poor conditions on the island. The UN refugee agency has requested access to the camp due to concerns about the deteriorating health of some of the asylum seekers.

On Thursday the commissioner for BITO, Paul Candler, who is based at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, made the first two positive decisions relating to two of the group who are receiving medical treatment in Rwanda.

In a letter to them Candler said: “A removal order will not be issued for your return to Sri Lanka. Arrangements will be put in place for you to be taken to a safe third country. Every effort will be made to do this expeditiously. When such a country has been identified you will be notified accordingly.”

It is not known if any third country has been identified. Lawyers acting for the asylum seekers say the safe third country should be the UK.

About 50 of the group have had their applications for sanctuary refused and various law firms are judicially reviewing their cases.

In a handwritten letter dated 26 March just days before Candler sent his decision letter, one of the five people receiving treatment in Rwanda wrote about the group’s experience in Diego Garcia: “They put up barbed wire fences around us and keep us like animals. If they send me to the country [Sri Lanka] I will be tortured and beaten to death.”

Nineteen children and 49 adults are being housed in a fenced encampment within the joint US-UK military base.

Geeth Kulasegaram of Jein Solicitors, who represents the two asylum seekers, welcomed the positive decision from the commissioner.

He said all his clients were victims of torture and that he had obtained independent expert reports confirming this. “Initially the BIOT did not appear to have considered these reports properly nor give enough weight to the medical evidence provided. My clients were evacuated to Rwanda for emergency medical treatment. It was also accepted that our clients’ conditions cannot be adequately managed in Diego Garcia or Rwanda.”

The Foreign Office declined to comment but sources said: “All protection claim decisions have been made following a careful assessment of individual circumstances and all other relevant information, including the advice of external counsel. Where the commissioner upholds claims for protection of migrants, we will support them until a safe third country can be found.”

Diego Garcia is a 10 sq mile (2,590 hectare) atoll just south of the equator, and part of the BIOT, a UK colonial holding situated halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. Chagos Islands residents were driven out to make way for a UK/US military base in the 1960s and 1970s.

The British home secretary, Suella Braverman, agreed a deal with Rwanda in 2022 to send all migrants arriving in the UK through irregular means to the central African country whether they claim asylum or not.

However, the plan came under fire over Rwanda’s dire human rights record and whether it was safe to send people there. The legality of the scheme is due to be tested shortly in the UK court of appeal.