Swiss action against refugees

by Gaja Lakshmi Paramasivam

Mr. Adrian Edwards
Spokesperson
UNHCR
Geneva
01 December 2010


Dear Mr.Edwards,
Swiss Action against Refugees


(December 01, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) We welcome your expressions of concern re the impact on Refugees due to the decision by the People of Switzerland to expel foreigners convicted of serious crimes. Refugees of Sri Lankan origin are included in this ‘risk’ category.

You have stated about the principle of non-refoulement embedded in International Law “It exists to ensure that no refugee or asylum-seeker is returned to a situation in which they face serious harm, such as persecution, torture or inhumane or degrading treatment.”

An action would be criminal not merely due to its ‘looks’ but more due to the intent and/or the way effects of the action are received by the victims. Assessing the deeper influence is not easy in relation to ‘foreigners’. When we feel part of each other, the deeper influence is natural and we automatically know why someone would have acted the way they did.

As you would know, there are strong protests by UK Tamils, against the Sri Lankan President who arrived in the UK yesterday. Does this then mean that the Tamil Nation would also practice refoulement and therefore seek to expel all those who aided the Sri Lankan President in the alleged crimes against Tamils? To my mind, both sides are artificially stretching their cultural limits to take advantage of global culture – especially in relation to law and military actions. Mr. Rajapakse used ‘local’ culture to defeat his opposition. That was fine provided he believed that he had to do that.

So long as Mr. Rajapakse stayed in his natural home that belief would have protected him. But Oxford is another world with its own culture. Likewise, Tamils of Sri Lankan origin who protest using their current citizenships outside Sri Lanka, are giving up their links to the belief based protection in Sri Lanka – to the extent they are using the name of their new countries beyond their own investment in the governments of these countries. This naturally leads to weakening of interest in the people in the land they feel they belong to.

Calls to expel migrants is not unusual in Australia. Our politicians are no exception. I recall Mr. Peter Costello doing that when he was Treasurer in Mr. Howard’s government. Expelling migrants is capital punishment and is very unbecoming of a European nation which is home to many International Agencies.

The Swiss need more education in relation to the total value of immigration. If a migrant is bad – the goodness of the Swiss is seen to be greater. That is how relativity works. There is an apparent good person for every apparent criminal. Calls to expel foreign criminals who have already been accepted by a country indicates that that country, as per its own assessment does not have enough goodness to manage the negative. Many criminals are known to have used Swiss banks to escape the laws of their own countries. The Swiss need to first repatriate those monies to those countries to the extent they expel people. That would be the right conduct if the Swiss are to be blessed by Natural Justice.