Lankan illegal immigrants released

Six Sri Lankans held at the detention centre, Balsum Ghut were released this afternoon and will be housed at Prospect Reef until further arrangements can be made for them to obtain relevant travel documents to leave the Territory.

Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) Dennis Jennings confirmed the information to BVI News today.

“They were granted refugee status and we are looking for a country that will accept them….that process will take a few months,” he commented during a telephone interview.

However, when prodded for more information about the cost to house the six men, the CIO said any other information will be disclosed through the forum of a press conference or a press release from the Government Information Service (GIS).

The men were detained since March 18, 2008.

Inthiran Veluppillai, Sivakaran Subramaniam and Malarvannan Balasingham were detained after the boat they were traveling on destined for St. Thomas crashed on a reef near Anegada in January 2009. They were rescued by a fisherman. The boat capsized and eight were confirmed dead – two being Sri Lankans.

Likewise, Vasanthakumar Shanmuganathan, Subaskanth Selvanayagam and Shanmubathasan Ponnu were nabbed off Cooper Islandin March 2008. They too were trying to reach the USVI.

Meanwhile, in January 2010, the BVI Government received written correspondence from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicating the men were qualified for refugee status, and recommended that government officials here grant them asylum until the agency can find them a suitable place to resettle.

Five of the men made headlines on December 16, 2009 after they mounted a hunger strike in protest of being detained for over a year. The strike concluded the following day.

^bvinews