COLOMBO — An Australian minister came under fire on Thursday for not meeting Tamil leaders on a visit to northern Sri Lanka, only days after Australia returned a boat of asylum seekers, including Tamils, under its hard-line border security policy. Some of the 41 Sri Lankans intercepted and sent home by Australia said on Tuesday they had been mistreated by Australian Customs, accusations Immigration Minister Scott Morrison denied. A second boat carrying 153 Sri Lankan asylum seekers remained in legal limbo as the Australian High Court considered whether their interception was legal. Most of the group returned to Sri Lanka are members of the majority Sinhalese community and not minority Tamils, who have alleged persecution by Sri Lankan authorities since the defeat of Tamil Tiger separatists in the north in 2009. During a visit on Wednesday to the northern city of Jaffna, Morrison met the governor of the Northern Province, G.A. Chandrasiri, a presidential appointee. – Reuters
