“Refugees safe to come home,” Sri Lankan PM

Sri Lankan asylum-seekers held on Pacific island camps who could potentially find new lives in the United States are free to return home without fear of persecution, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister has said.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made the comments during a visit to Australia in which he discussed with his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull bilateral cooperation on combating people smuggling. No Sri Lankan asylum seeker has reached Australia by boat since 2013.

But Sri Lankans, Iranians and Afghans are the largest national groups among more than 2,000 asylum seekers living on the Pacific islands nations of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Wickremesinghe said the Sri Lankan asylum seekers had broken Sri Lankan law by fleeing to Australia for asylum. But they had nothing to fear from returning. “They are welcome to return to Sri Lanka and we won’t prosecute them,” Wickremesinghe told media. “Come back. All is forgiven,” he said. “It is quite safe in Sri Lanka.” Sri Lanka has been attempting to reconcile its population since a bloody 26-year civil war ended in 2009.

Dissatisfaction with the government is often interpreted as support for ethnic Tamil Tigers rebels.

“If the prime minister is offering a blanket amnesty, then that’s something quite new but I don’t think the prime minister has the authority to do that,” Kingsbury said.

Sri Lankan asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus would be wary of assurances that they were safe to return, with Sri Lanka’s north still effectively under military occupation and subject to ongoing reports of human rights abuses.