"This report attempts to redress the imbalance and respond to the justification of Western governments for repatriation of Tamil asylum seekers based on the claim that the government of Sri Lanka has taken serious steps to address abuse of human rights by the security forces, that there are adequate ‘improvements’ in the human rights situation and that the Sri Lankan government has taken measures to protect the human rights of all its citizens."(p.4)

One vivid ethical issue that is raised in the introduction is that "...while many Western countries introduce restrictive measures to prevent asylum seekers from reaching their borders, alleging that they are bogus or economic refugees, they continue to encourage repressive regimes by providing funds and military equipment which are used for internal repression, resulting in people fleeing from their homelands." (p.1).

The TIC is one of the oldest Tamil institutions of the diaspora and has a well-earned reputation as a reputable clearinghouse of information on Tamils of all stripes in Britain and the rest of Europe, and the situation for Tamils throughout Sri Lanka. Their periodic booklets of general interest include most recently Lutz Oette’s The International Crime of Genocide: The Case of the Tamil People of Sri Lanka (London, Dec. 1997)

These booklets are written for a specific purpose, it seems, and most suffer from the same general defects, which a good editor could rectify. This reader is always left somewhat disoriented from lack of continuity, insufficient information and poor English. For example, on page 24 of Refusing Sanctuary, in a section entitled "The Role of UNHCR in Sri Lanka", five paragraphs are used to discuss a letter the UNHCR wrote defending its latest Position Paper on Sri Lanka which was issued in March, 1997. Nowhere is the Position Paper itself summarized, which would be of interest to the general reader. In addition, conclusions need to be highlighted for easy access by busy readers.