(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Sri Lanka is denying allegations of human rights abuse by its security forces from asylum seekers rejected by Australia and interviewed on SBS' Dateline program.
In a Dateline report aired on Tuesday night, failed asylum seekers sent back to Sri Lanka spoke of horrific experiences after returning to their homeland.
Angelo Risso reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
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"Doctored, orchestrated, biased documentary, which is absolutely baseless."
Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, is not pleased with the report on SBS' Dateline program.
The report detailed allegations that Sri Lankan security forces have tortured failed asylum seekers sent back to his country by Australia.
It said abductions, sexual assault and even brandings were commonplace for returning Tamils.
But Admiral Samarasinghe, speaking with SBS after the report aired, accuses the network of presenting what he calls doctored evidence to damage Sri Lanka's image.
He denies any wrongdoing on the part of the Sri Lankan forces and claims many of the alleged victims have not been harmed, but rather harmed themselves.
He says any people who feel they have suffered can pack up and leave.
"There are people who committed suicide to bring discredit to people, so these pictures, and also people who are arrested, tortured, abducted, raped, are free to leave the country and go to other parts of the world."
Dr David Corlett, a human rights activist who put together SBS' acclaimed Go Back To Where You Came From series, also filed the Sri Lankan report.
He found a number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers who had returned home after Australia rejected their applications for refugee status.
His report alleges Sri Lanka's security forces systematically brutalised the asylum seekers, with human rights lawyers finding the similarities of the allegations "striking".
One man, known only as Narada, alleges the Sri Lankan forces kidnapped and tortured him.
(Translated)"They hoisted me up, with my torso hanging down. After that, they used a hammer, they placed a book on my head and hit it with a hammer. It made me pass urine and defecate when they hit me like that. After that, they hosed me from my head down. I think they did that because of the smell of faeces."
Dateline reported it had uncovered documents showing the Australian government knew of the man's torture claims and did not investigate.
A comprehensive report out of Britain in March interviewed 40 alleged victims of abuse from Sri Lankan security forces.
Another Sri Lankan who talked with Dateline, Anusha, is living house to house since she was returned, fearing for her safety and seeking another way out.
She told Dateline the security forces sexually assaulted her as she was fleeing the country.
"If you are human, you won't do this, you won't be trying to rape a woman. Then I cried, then he hit me all over my body with the weapon. Seven soldiers tied my hands, and seven soldiers then raped me. They really raped me very badly."
Since 2012, over 1,300 Sri Lankans have been returned to their homeland under the policy of so-called enhanced screening.
The policy allows asylum seekers to be rejected on the basis of a brief interview immediately following their arrival in Australia.
A former operations manager at Nauru Detention Centre, Greg Lake, told Dateline the term "enhanced screening" is a misnomer.
"The idea of it being somehow enhanced or better is exactly the opposite of what it is. It was enhanced by making it shorter -- fewer questions, less opportunity to put your story, (like) 'We're going to apply this interview for legal purposes, really, and then send you home.'"
In a statement to Dateline, the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it had not received information of any wrongdoing by Sri Lankan forces.
The department says it is impossible to determine if the allegations are legitimate.
