Deported Tamils arriving in Colombo come under pressure from security forces to return to their home areas in the north-east, where fighting continues. This creates huge difficulties for the deportees. They cannot stay in Colombo in order to obtain national identity cards or other documents and they cannot travel to or within the north-east without these documents.

Bail is disallowed under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Under Emergency Regulations, bail was allowed only after three months...Under an amendment to the Immigrants and Emigrants Act, in June 1998, bail can be disallowed, whereas bail is available even to the accused in murder cases...

The amendment also disallows suspension of sentence or conditional release, has increased punishment by a huge margin and provides for mandatory punishment, thus removing the discretion of courts, against the concept of a fair trial...

The amendment was introduced in response to pressure from European nations who want to clamp down on human smuggling. However, asylum seekers have been targeted under the act. Between January 13 and March 23, 2001, 149 people were detained under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act, on arrival at the Colombo airport, including Tamil asylum seekers deported from other countries....

Balakrishnan Thanarajah, who was deported from Britain on 8 April 2001, was arrested at the airport. The police have stated in their report to the Negombo magistrate that he was interrogated, fingerprinted and his statement recorded. The police had also requested reports about him from the Crime Records Division, Internal Intelligence Directorate and the Terrorist Investigation Department... The Criminal Investigations Department sought reports from the CRD, IID and TID. He was released on Rs 50,000 bail and ordered to appear again at the Negombo court. Mahalingam Chandramohan, deported from Germany, was handed over by immigration officers at Katunayake airport to the CID on February 21, 2001. He was releas- ed on March 30, 2001 on Rs 50,000 bail and ordered to appear again in Negombo court.

Thulasi Gnanakrishnan and her two children, deported from Canada, were arrested at the Colombo airport on February 28, 2000. She was released on bail and ordered to appear in court on May 30, 2000, but the police denied her permission to stay in Colombo. The Canadian high commission in Colombo told her lawyers that she was detained overnight at the police post in the airport to allow time for the police to “confirm their identity” and that “she was free to go about her business in Sri Lanka”...

Security forces often demand bribes. People arrested and detained have been released after relatives paid large sums to the authorities. Refugees returning from foreign countries are suspected of having large amounts of money and this may lead to their arrest. It is unclear as to what happens to the police records of arrest and detention after detainees are released on paying bribes.

Returning refugees are suspected of raising funds for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is now a banned organization in Sri Lanka, India, Britain, Canada and the United States of America. The LTTE was banned in January 1998 in Sri Lanka...The state of emergency lapsed in July 2001, and President Chandrika Kumaratunga introduced regulations on July 4, 2001 under the PTA banning the LTTE. These regulations specifically provide that contributing or collecting funds for a proscribed organization is an offence punishable by imprisonment of 7 to 15 years.