§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has received the report of the investigation he ordered into the removal to Sri Lanka of Mr. Kandiah Raveenthiran on 4 June; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrittanYes. I have received a full report about the circumstances in which Mr. Raveenthiran was returned to Colombo before the receipt of representations from the United Kingdom immigration advisory service against the decision not to grant asylum. This serious error occurred because not all those who ought to have been told of the setting of the directions for Mr. Raveenthiran's removal were told.
The Tamil emergency placed considerable strain on staff both in the immigration service and in other parts of the immigration and nationality department, but the report shows that there were a number of general weaknesses in communication and organisation which should not have been present. As a result, clearer lines of communication—particularly between headquarters departments and the ports—will be introduced and relative responsibilities more clearly defined.
In view of the pressures placed on staff, and the more general weaknesses to which I have referred, formal disciplinary action against individual officers involved would be inappropriate. Those involved have, however, been seen by the head of the immigration and nationality department and the ways in which they failed in their responsibilities have been made clear to them.