Category Statement

Thousands of members of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority who fled the country to escape war and violent repression are currently living in the Australian community on short-term visas. They fear being sent back to Sri Lanka, which is still not safe for Tamils.

Why did they flee?

Sri Lanka has a long history of discrimination against Tamils.  In 1948 Tamil plantation workers were deprived of citizenship. In 1956 Sinhalese was made the sole official language, denying the Tamil language equal status.

Peaceful protests against discrimination were met with violent repression, by the army, police and racist mobs. In July 1983 thousands of Tamils were murdered by racist mobs incited by government ministers.

In response to the racism and repression, some Tamil youth took up arms and formed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam [LTTE], which fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east of the island. After nearly 30 years of war, the LTTE were defeated in 2009. The government’s military victory was accompanied by a genocidal massacre of Tamil civilians.

Following the victory of the Sri Lankan government, Tamil areas are under military occupation.  Land belonging to Tamils has been seized for new military bases, Sinhalese settlements and commercial enterprises.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch [HRW] have documented the widespread use of arbitrary detention, murder, torture, rape and disappearances, carried out by the army and its collaborators.

The 2014 HRW World Report stated that in Sri Lanka, “Torture, rape, and ill-treatment in custody by the security forces remain widespread.” [1]

In July 2017 Ben Emmerson, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism, said, “All the evidence points to the conclusion that the use of torture has been, and remains today, endemic and routine for those arrested on national security grounds.” [2]

In 2024, a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights said, “Torture and ill-treatment by police and security forces remain prevalent in Sri Lanka.”  The report added that allegations of “abduction, arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence perpetrated against individuals of Tamil ethnicity by Sri Lankan security forces” were credible. [3]

There are still people detained without trial under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.  There are restrictions on free speech. It is illegal to advocate an independent Tamil state, even by non-violent means.

What happens to returned asylum-seekers?

A UN human rights working group that visited Sri Lanka in December 2017 received testimony that, in some cases, returned asylum-seekers were “beaten and kept under surveillance once released, and charged with offences relating to illegal departure from Sri Lanka”.

The Australian government does not keep track of what has happened to asylum-seekers returned to Sri Lanka from Australia but it is known that some have been intimidated by regular visits to their homes by the army and police.

People who have fled from violence and terror should not be sent home against their will.  They should be able to decide for themselves if and when they feel it is safe to return.  They should be given permanent residency and welfare and work rights, so they can build a new life in Australia.

New Sri Lankan Government: too soon to judge

In 2024 a new government was elected in Sri Lanka.  In September AK Dissanayake was elected president.  He leads the National Peoples Power coalition, which also won the subsequent parliamentary elections.

The new government is often seen as leftist.  But the JVP (Peoples Liberation Front), which is the main component of the NPP coalition, has a mixed history.  It led two armed rebellions againt the Sri Lankan government, in 1971 and 1987-89. Yet it opposed Tamil self-determination and became a strong supporter of the Sri Lankan army in its war against the LTTE. This causes many Tamils to distrust the new government.

Dissanayake has promised to improve the treatment of Tamil people.  However, it is too soon to judge his sincerity. So far, there has been no fundamental change. There are still Tamil political prisoners. There are still numerous military bases in Tamil areas.

It is premature to say that Sri Lanka is now safe for Tamils.

Permanent visas for Tamil refugees!

Thousands of Tamils have been living in Australia on temporary visas for more than 12 years. This creates a feeling of insecurity and makes it difficult for them to plan their future. Some are permitted to work, others are not.

Despite the difficulties, they are part of the Australian community. Many have Australian workmates and friends. Their children are going to school here.

They should not be deported, or pressured into returning to Sri Lanka “voluntarily”. They should be free to choose. Only permanent visas will make this possible.

References

1. ‎https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014
2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/14/torture-by-sri-lankan-police-routine-says-human-rights-lawyer
3. A/HRC/57/19: Situation of human rights in Sri Lanka – Comprehensive report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Advance unedited version | OHCHR

The Refugee Action Collective (Victoria) condemns every type of discrimination and any associated criminal conduct – all of it being behaviour that Australian law prohibits. But RAC (Vic) opposes the intrusive, coercive Plan[1] that Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, recommends for adoption by the Albanese Labor government.

If fully adopted, the Plan would see new policies and self-appointed monitoring bodies that, under the cloak of combating antisemitism, would “go far beyond any protections offered any other group”[2] – and would, in effect, threaten freedom of speech in relation to Israel.

For example, the Plan’s item 3.1 Definitions would require (RAC’s italics) “all levels of government and public institutions” to adopt and use “the [very complex] International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition, including its illustrative examples” to identify antisemitism. But one example, “[Comparing] contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”, could see people being officially defined as ‘antisemites’ for comparatively criticising Israel’s genocide of Gaza’s Palestinians. That would threaten all pro-Palestinian protestors, writers and speakers – some of whom are Jewish Australians.

Yet, as lawyer Josh Bornstein has pointed out, a court recently “correctly determined that political criticism of Israel, however inflammatory or adversarial, is not by its nature, criticism of Jews in general or based on Jewish racial or ethnic identity and therefore was not antisemitic or unlawful”. Bornstein sees “Segal’s proposals … as an attempt to subvert the legal system …”[3].

Item 3.4 says “The Envoy will develop … a report card, assessing each university’s … [steps taken] to combat antisemitism”, … [so that universities which] “facilitate, enable, or fail to act against antisemitism” could have government funding cut, and “academics … [termin-ated for] antisemitic or … hateful speech or actions”. The PM must reject a report card that is a ‘self-appointed judge and jury’ of self-governing academic institutions and their staff.

Further, item 3.13 seeks “a robust monitoring and evaluation framework to track the imple-mentation and effectiveness of antisemitism … initiatives across all sectors [RAC’s italics]”.

The report pays no regard to such institutions as the Australian Human Rights Commission that work against racism and discrimination. It is also ignorant: item 3.9 recommends use of the Migration Act to screen out visa applicants for antisemitism, and cancel antisemites’ visas – yet screening and cancellation for any discriminatory threat (not just antisemitism) has been occurring for years under that Act’s section 501 “character test”. (However, RAC (Vic) opposes the ‘semi-automatic’ deportation of people whose visas are cancelled.) 

In short, Segal’s Plan calls for antisemitism-only visa measures; and for yet-to-be-identified antisemitism monitoring bodies empowered to suggest de-funding of universities, the ABC, SBS and cultural bodies – for antisemitism or insufficient combating thereof. But, as Manne observes (at p 4), the Plan seeks no consequences whatever for “bigotry against indigenous Australians, Muslims, women and gays”. We call on Prime Minister Albanese to reject this partisan over-reach of a Plan, and terminate the appointment of its author.

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[1].    Special Envoy’s Plan to Combat Antisemitism, July 2025.
[2].    Robert Manne, “The wrong way to respond to antisemitism”, Inside Story, 18 July 2025, p 2. Manne, a veteran Jewish Australian academic, is Emeritus Professor of Politics at La Trobe University.
[3] .   Josh Bornstein, “Antisemitism envoy Segal has laid a trap for Albanese”, The Age, 16 July 2025.

The Refugee Action Collective (Vic) welcomes the defeat of Peter Dutton and the Coalition in the federal election.

Dutton has a disgusting track record of fomenting racism towards refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants.

He tried to whip up fear in Melbourne over supposed African gangs. As Home Affairs Minister he warned against a “single act of compassion to refugees”. And in this election campaign he blamed migrants for housing problems created by years of bad government policy.

But Labor’s win under Anthony Albanese still leaves thousands of asylum-seekers and refugees in cruel limbo.

In 2022, the first Albanese government hid behind excuses for its inaction over refugees. Its small majority, the power of the Murdoch media and the challenge of cleaning up the mess left by successive Coalition governments supposedly ruled out bold policy decisions.

There can be no more hiding. In the lower house, Labor has 51 more seats than the Coalition. In the senate, it can pass progressive policy with the sole support of the Greens. The Murdoch media is a shadow of its former self – it wholeheartedly backed Dutton and his defeat shows that Murdoch is no king-maker.

Once again, Albanese told his election night victory party, “No one held back, no one left behind.” If he means what he says, then his government needs to take the following actions as a matter of urgency. Too many asylum-seekers and refugees have suffered for too long.

• Permanent visas now for the 8000 or so victims of the failed, racist “fast track” system and those who came to Australia under Medevac legislation
• Bring the remaining two dozen refugees and their families in Port Moresby to Australia
• Bring the 100 or so asylum-seekers on Nauru to Australia and close the detention centre there
• Allow the 12,000 refugees marooned in Indonesia by an Australian ban to come here
• Repeal the Trump-style laws passed in December 2024 that threaten up to 80,000 people with deportation to danger.

RAC Vic will continue to campaign for the Albanese government to end the cruelty and uncertainty.

Our first post-election forum is on Monday 2 June, focusing on the deportation laws. We are holding a rally in the city on Friday 20 June as part of Refugee Week.

The fight for refugee rights will continue until Operation Sovereign Borders and its regime of boat turnbacks, offshore detention and mandatory detention is in the dustbin of history side by side with Dutton.