Sri Lanka Activist Revives Debate in England Over Sanctuary Movement

MANCHESTER, England — For nearly two years, Viraj Mendis has not stepped outside an Anglican church in Manchester. To do so, he says, means he will be deported to his native Sri Lanka and certain death.

He sleeps in the minister’s tiny robing room and dreams of walking in a park, but he stays in the church because he believes the British government won’t send police in to arrest him--even though they can legally pick him up at any time.

The 32-year-old political activist chose the ancient right of sanctuary as a last resort in his fight to keep from being sent back to Sri Lanka, the island nation off India’s southern tip.

Revival of Movement?

His case has become a test for the revival of the sanctuary movement in Britain.

“If I’m allowed to win, it would be seen as a big victory for sanctuary in this country and that will open up the doors,” Mendis said.

Mendis predicted that hundreds of illegal immigrants will take refuge in churches and mosques if he succeeds, especially since appeals against deportation have been severely restricted in a new immigration law.

Mendis has lost two immigration appeals, a High Court judicial review and a Court of Appeal ruling. He is waiting to see whether Parliament’s House of Lords, Britain’s highest court, will hear his case.

Ouster Order Signed

Mendis took refuge in the Church of the Ascension in Manchester’s run-down, mainly black, Hulme district Dec. 20, 1986, two days after Home Secretary Douglas Hurd, who is in charge of immigration, signed a deportation order against him for “overstaying” in Britain.

The tall, bearded and bespectacled Mendis, son of a Sri Lankan tea plantation manager, came to Britain in 1973 on a student visa to study electrical engineering at the University of Manchester.

He completed two years and had a visa until 1975. He said he got into financial difficulties, dropped out of school and went to work. He added that he became so disenchanted with the treatment of blacks that he joined a communist splinter group.

Appalled by ‘Racism’

A member of Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority, Mendis said he was appalled by what he considered racism in his own country against the minority Tamils and after severe rioting in his homeland in 1983, he participated in several pro-Tamil demonstrations in England.

“At that stage I knew if I go back to Sri Lanka now, I’ve had it because Sinhalese people who support the Tamils are considered traitors,” he said.

But the Home Office and the courts have ruled that his fear of persecution is not well-founded, a contention supported by the Sri Lankan High Commission, which said he “is free to go to Sri Lanka without impediment.”

Backed by Rights Group

However, the London-based human rights organization Amnesty International as well as church and refugee groups and a recent independent public inquiry have supported Mendis, saying he could face persecution, especially from Sinhalese extremists.

“There is clear evidence that people who have been deported from Britain to Sri Lanka during the past year have suffered torture,” said David Haslam of the British Council of Churches race relations unit.

The Rev. John Methuen, rector of the Hulme district, said his Church of the Ascension decided to offer Mendis sanctuary because “we believe we are trying to save a man’s life.” He said the congregation wasn’t concerned that Mendis is an atheist.

Supporters Maintain Guard

Mendis and his supporters, who maintain a 24-hour guard at the church, have been targets of hate mail and threatening phone calls. The church had a bomb scare. One supporter was stabbed in the back of the neck. Another was followed home and had a swastika carved on the top of her hand with a razor blade.

Mendis said the real reason the British government wants to deport him is that “they don’t want any more black people in this country . . . .That’s really at the heart of it, and to make it worse, I’m not only a black person, I’m a communist as well.”

The Home Office refused to comment on the case saying Hurd “is content to abide by the decision of the court in this matter and we would hope that Mr. Mendis would do the same.”

Refuses to Leave Church

But Mendis said he won’t leave the church unless the deportation order is lifted. He sleeps on a sofa bed in the robing room and eats meals provided by members of the community.

The right of sanctuary was an accepted part of British common law until 1623 when it was abolished by Parliament, but the tradition of sanctuary in a church has held.

Methuen said he doesn’t believe Hurd “wants to go down in history” as the first home secretary to send police into a church. The clergyman maintained that Hurd has other options, such as lifting the deportation order to allow further investigation.

Mendis believes that his support in the local community and fears that his arrest could spark riots have so far kept police away. But he said the Home Office may move against him soon because “they want to destroy the sanctuary movement.”