Dateline story alleges abuse of “returned” Sri Lankan asylum seekers

Tomorrow night Dateline airs a special investigation alleging that some failed asylum seekers returned to Sri Lanka by Australia have been abducted and abused by Sri Lankan security forces on their return.

Go Back To Where You Came From presenter, Dr David Corlett, goes undercover in Sri Lanka to hear stories of beating and torture of those accused of being associated with the defeated Tamil Tigers.

One returnee describes having his fingernails torn out with pliers and being hung upside down and beaten.

One woman claims she was raped and beaten by Sri Lankan authorities as she tried to flee her homeland.

In a live cross on Tuesday night, Dateline will put these claims to the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Australia.

Corlett also interviews Sri Lankans who have fled to the U.K. These people and human rights experts describe a further catalogue of rape and torture including branding with hot metal rods.

Dateline hears further claims that the government’s policy of ‘enhanced screening’, by which Sri Lankan asylum seekers are subject to rapid assessment, may be returning people to the kind of persecution the Refugee Convention is designed to prevent.

Tuesday at 9.30pm on SBS ONE.