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was apparently a mistake, and the public fuore is preventing any decisions being taken on the good cases. On 1st May decision was made not to send any Tamils back. However, 2 Swiss government police officals visited Sri Lanka and submitted a report in August to the Swiss government to the effect that conditions in Sri Lanka were similar to those in many other 3rd world countries. Consequently in October, the Swiss authorities decided in principle that Tamils could be sent back. The authorities have issued warnings that they will deport almost all of the Tamil despite urgent appeals from the UNHCR and Voluntary agencies not to. The deadlin for the mass deportation was some three weeks ago and to date it has not been implemented.
UK
The UK policy is at present to wait and see. Legally the Home Office is still formally refusing applications for asylum, cases are being appealed and de- portations are not being executed. There are currently 400 asylum seekers and many students and overstayers. While none are being returned, there remains no official policy by the Home Office and thus there is very great insecurity among the Tamil community.
As a result of the serious concern expressed and in the light of the evidence from Al and UNHCR, many of the agencies at the meeting agreed to the resolution. The intention is that the resolution should be used as each participant sees fit in his/her own country in letters to the national press, by lawyers in court or whatever. The Council of Europe Committee on Refugees, Migration and Demography, indicated that they will circulate the resolution around the parliamentarians who are members of that Committee in January.
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