Belgium: Defend Tamil activist from deportation

Tamil Solidarity activist Muruganandam Murugathas – Thas to his friends – was arrested in November and taken to a closed centre for asylum seekers in Steenokkerzeel, in reality a deportation camp.

Thas, a Tamil from Sri Lanka who lives with his wife and two children, still has no official papers, has struggled for 18 years to get official papers.

Thas is not only active on issues regarding the Tamil community. He is a committed participant in the labour movement in Antwerp.

This attack is even more shocking as it comes in the light of the recent leaked report showing that the United Nations failed in its mandate to protect civilians in the last months of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war in 2009.

The life of a known Tamil activist is in serious danger if they are sent back to Sri Lanka. Even the British high court has ordered that imminent deportations to Sri Lanka are halted as they may be tortured on their return.

Both Tamil Solidarity and the CWI are protesting against the possible deportation of Thas. Socialist Party (Ireland) MEP Paul Murphy, a member of the South Asian delegation of the European Parliament, has issued a statement to the Belgian authorities opposing the deportation.

See www.tamilsolidarity.org for more details and updates and details of where to send urgently needed protest letters and solidarity messages

Tamil Solidarity annual general meeting

Sunday 16 December

10.30am-5.30pm

692 High Road Leytonstone, London E11 3AA

Cultural commemoration on the first anniversary of the notorious massacre in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, of unarmed men, women and children by state forces

Sunday 16 December

The Horse Hospital

Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD

2.30pm – 6pm

Entrance £5 waged, £3 unwaged

Light refreshments available

Beer, wine and soft drinks on sale at the bar

[email protected]

Get tickets at www.eventbrite.com/event/4921581583

www.campaignkazakhstan.org

Films, poetry and live music

Speakers include:

  • Mick Whale, Campaign Kazakhstan secretary, reports on recent visit to Zhanaozen
  • Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary
  • Weizmann Hamilton, Democratic Socialist Movement, on the South Africa Marikana Miners’ Massacre

Plans will be announced for protests on 17 December