Australia court bars return of Sri Lanka refugees

A High Court on Monday barred Australia from handing back a boat carrying 153 asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka, a day after Canberra returned another vessel to Colombo following a week of secrecy.

The interim injunction from a late-night sitting applies at least until a hearing resumes on Tuesday afternoon, and was granted after lawyers argued the transfer was illegal.

Refugee advocates claim the asylum-seekers have been deprived of the ability to have their claims for refugee status properly assessed, with their screening reportedly being carried out at sea via video link.

Lawyer George Newhouse said they were "entitled to have their claims for protection processed in accordance with Australian law."

"The asylum-seekers claim that they are fleeing persecution and that they're at risk of death, torture or significant harm by Sri Lankan authorities," he told Australian Associated Press.

"The minister cannot simply intercept their vessel in the middle of the night and disappear them."

Concern had been mounting over the fate of two boats reportedly intercepted by the Australian navy in Australian waters late last month.

There were claims that Australia could be breaking international law in the way it screened the passengers and by returning them involuntarily to a country in which they had a fear of persecution.

After a week of stonewalling, Canberra confirmed earlier Monday that one boatload of 41 Sri Lankans who attempted to reach Australia were handed back to Colombo on Sunday.

Under its policy of not commenting on "operational matters", Canberra has yet to confirm whether the second vessel, carrying 153 people, even exists.

Sent home to prison

Sri Lankan police confirmed that the adults among the group of 41 -- 28 men and four women -- would be charged with attempting to leave the country illegally, a crime punishable by up to two years in jail.

They were being held in the notorious high-security Boossa prison on Monday and would appear before a magistrate Tuesday.

The nine children with them will also be brought before a magistrate, police spokesman Ajith Rohana told AFP, "but we won't press charges and we won't object to their being released," he added.

Newhouse told the ABC that reports of the charges were "shocking".

"That strengthens the urgency of the court application, because if this government is putting those people at risk of criminal charges, imprisonment and torture -- because that's what happens in Sri Lankan prisons -- then these people need assistance urgently," he said.

In a statement, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said it was "deeply concerned" by the decision to return the 41.

UNHCR said it did not have enough information about how they were screened to determine whether the process was in accordance with international law -- but added that "such an environment would rarely afford an appropriate venue for a fair procedure".

'Enhanced screening process'

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said earlier Monday that the 41 people sent back were "subjected to an enhanced screening process... to ensure compliance by Australia with our international obligations under relevant conventions".

Only one person, a Sinhalese Sri Lankan, may have had a case for asylum but he opted to return voluntarily with the rest of the passengers, Morrison added.

His other option was being sent to Papua New Guinea or Nauru for offshore processing, with Australia no longer processing boatpeople on its territory.

Of those returned at sea to Sri Lankan authorities, 37 were Sinhalese and only four were Tamil, according to the minister.

"At no stage was the vessel in distress and all persons aboard the SIEV (suspected illegal entry vessel) were safe and accounted for," he said.

He has yet to comment on the injunction against the return of the 153, but the government has said it was abiding by international law.

The asylum-seekers on the second boat reportedly fled Sri Lanka to a refugee camp in India before heading to Australia.

The Tamil Refugee Council has claimed at least 11 of those on board have been tortured by Sri Lanka's intelligence services.

Labor opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles slammed the government's operation.

"Australia's international obligations are reliant upon a credible processing system and we have deep concerns about how that could have been performed by video link at sea in a way which gave an individual assessment, when all the time the boat was steaming towards Sri Lanka," he said.

The injunction comes ahead of a visit to Colombo this week by Morrison for talks on illegal immigration. He is due to meet top officials from President Mahinda Rajapakse's government.

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