CAT/C/57/D/605/2014 asylum procedures. Out of fear, the complainant spoke only of Mr. K.’s supposed connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam instead of his knowledge that Mr. K. was indeed a member. The complainant holds that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are considered to be terrorists by the Sri Lankan authorities, as well as by Australia. Therefore, the complainant feared imprisonment 14 in Australia for his perceived connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as there were a number of Sri Lankan asylum seekers being held in detention in Australia on account of a negative security assessment of them by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. 6.4 He also argues that while the Refugee Review Tribunal judgement considered that his treatment, if returned to Sri Lanka, would not constitute “serious harm”, which is a term used in the Migration Act 1958 based on the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, his current complaint concerns non-refoulement under the Convention against Torture. 6.5 In addition, he claims that the conditions in Negombo Prison are deliberately substandard as part of the punishment, thereby amounting to inhumane treatment. While the State party points out the absence of reports of mistreatment in the prison’s remand unit, the complainant considers that the conditions themselves constitute ill-treatment. He maintains that the treatment by the Government of Sri Lanka of failed asylum seekers has refoulement implications. In that regard, the complainant refers to the judgement of the Federal Court in WZAPN v. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection [2014] FCA 947,15 wherein it was stated that even small threats to life or threats to liberty of small duration continued to constitute violations of the right to life and of personal liberty. The State party reportedly appealed to the High Court of Australia against that judgement, which concerns the Sri Lankan cases, but the decision had not been taken by the time of submission. 6.6 The complainant, if he were to be returned, would not only be considered as a failed asylum seeker who had left the country illegally but also as a young Tamil man from the north-east of Sri Lanka whose family has significant links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sufficient to attract attention and suspicion from the Criminal Investigation Department. He submits that other young men recently removed to Sri Lanka by Australia have suffered torture at the hands of the Criminal Investigation Department, which was interested in their putative links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.16 6.7 As regards the conclusion of the Refugee Review Tribunal that there is no longer a need to presume that an applicant requires protection simply because he or she is a Tamil, based on the UNHCR eligibility guidelines, the complainant contests the assertion by the Tribunal that the sole reason for which he could be harmed is being Tamil. He claims that other accumulating elements of his situation, as a young male from the north-east, with family connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and suspicions having already been expressed about his own involvement with the group, and being a failed asylum seeker in Australia, were ignored by the Tribunal. 14 15 16 8 The complainant most probably means detention rather than imprisonment. See http://www.refworld.org/docid/5480616c4.html. A recent report on the subject produced by the Edmund Rice Centre was attached to the complainant’s submission (annex C). The second person mentioned in the report was cited, with his own statement and evidence, in complaint no. 649/2015, which was also made by the complainant’s counsel and is currently before the Committee. In that complaint, a declaration and medical records of the young man was provided who states how he had been questioned and beaten by the Criminal Investigation Department in Sri Lanka about who he knew in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The other young man complained of mistreatment at the airport before he was taken to Negombo, in the form of unrelenting interrogation, being stripped naked, being threatened at pistol point and being beaten. The complainant nonetheless accepted that those incidents did not take place in the remand unit of Negombo Prison. GE.16-09596