Controller General of Immigration and Emigration Chulananda Perera has told local media that the department had no plans to stop the deportations of asylum seekers, despite concerns raised by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

He maintains that the Sri Lankan Government was acting in accordance with the country’s laws.

On Friday (12), UNHCR expressed ‘grave concern’ about the resumption of arrests, detention and deportation of asylum-seekers and refugees in Sri Lanka and called on the government of Sri Lanka to ‘refrain from such actions and abide by its obligations under international law’.

The agency stated it has learned that between September 3 and 11, a total of 62 Pakistani and three Afghan asylum-seekers were arrested and detained; 40 were subsequently deported.

According to the UNHCR, local authorities have arrested and detained 328 refugees and asylum-seekers, and deported 183 of them to Pakistan and Afghanistan, since early June.

The UNHCR has also noted that returning an individual to a country where they face the risk of torture is prohibited under the UN’s Convention Against Torture, which Sri Lanka has ratified.

Hundreds of Pakistani Christians and Afghans who are said to be fleeing persecution in their countries have been arriving in Sri Lanka seeking UNHCR protection.

Sri Lanka had earlier defended the action taken against the asylum-seekers, saying that a state’s responsibility to international obligations had to be “nuanced and balanced in the context of domestic compulsions”.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry had also accused the UNHCR of processing asylum claims too slowly, and of not taking responsibility for repatriating those whose refugee claims were rejected.

Meanwhile, six human rights campaigners on Friday petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the deportations. The petition will be taken up on September 29. Earlier, the country's Court of Appeals had allowed the deportations to be continued.