COLOMBO: Scottish woman Kayleigh Fraser has filed a writ petition at the Court of Appeal against the decision taken by the Department of Immigration and Emigration to deport her from Sri Lanka.
Kayleigh states that her fundamental rights were violated by canceling her visa due to her showing solidarity with the anti-government protests.
The petitioner has requested the Court of Appeal to issue an order preventing her deportation to her country and revoking the cancellation of her visa period.
The Controller General of the Immigration and Emigration and theAttorney General have been named as the respondents in the petition.
The Department of Immigration and Emigration revealed that it had decided to terminate the visa issued to Fraser as she had posted protest-related content on social media. In a letter, the Department of Immigration and Emigration had informed her to leave Sri Lanka before the 15th of August.
Kayleigh, from St Andrews, has lived in Sri Lanka since 2021, but came to the attention of the government after she began blogging about the “aragalaya”, or struggle, a protest movement that broke out at the grassroots level in March against the government’s mishandling of the economy, which has seen inflation spiral and supplies of essential goods dwindle. The protests eventually snowballed on July 9, forcing President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.
The 34-year-old British Instagrammer has been telling the world about the revolution from her perspective – but was warned she should leave the country days after a new president Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in. Immigration officials appeared at her house earlier this month claiming she had violated the terms of her visa – an encounter she said left her feeling “unsafe”
Following the departure of president Rajapaksa, prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as president and immediately was accused by human rights groups of cracking down on dissent under a renewed state of emergency. Human Rights Watch has accused the new regime of “criminalising” peaceful protest and bringing “excessive and disproportionate criminal charges” against those who continue to oppose the government.
Kayleigh’s visa was withdrawn suddenly without reason, giving her little time to file an appeal against the decision. Posting a picture of the letter from the country’s Controller General of Immigration and Emigration on Facebook, she said: “Today Sri Lankan immigration cancelled my visa and have given me five days to leave the country. This is what happens here when you speak out against state violence.”
The British national’s case has also received wide publicity back home in Scotland with the leading Scottish publication Daily Record providing extensive coverage on the incident. In an additional statement provided to the Daily Record, Kayleigh added: “I have petitioned the Supreme Court today to challenge this deportation order I have been given. Immigration were served papers – we go from here.”
She has been working with activist lawyer Nagananda Kodituwakku to fight the expulsion. Kodituwakku, a celebrated activist in the country, has written to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to make him aware of the “highly volatile” situation.
He made a statement with Kayleigh by his side outside Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court earlier on Friday. In the statement, livestreamed on his Facebook page, the lawyer said: “The purpose of this appeal is to protect the rights and the freedom of the citizens. She has publicised things on her social media page – this is her right. No-one can deny that right.
“It is unfortunately our government who has absolutely failed to protect her human rights. I really appreciate what she has done.
“Her liberty is curtailed and her visa has been cancelled. They can’t enforce the law in this manner in any democracy.
“Now it is in the hands of the judiciary who I am informed will rule strictly according to their constitution. The constitution very clearly says it is the duty of any person to protect the rights and liberty of any person. That is exactly what she has done.”
Aberdeen-based Labour councillor Deena Tissera, who hails from Sri Lanka, and MSP Foysol Choudhury are fighting Kayleigh’s corner from Scotland. They have written to the UK’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Sarah Hulton seeking support, and are set to ask the UK and Scottish governments to make representations to their counterparts in the island nation.
The Daily Record earlier had noted that Kayleigh, who was documenting the protests in Sri Lanka, has had her passport seized by the authorities. Kayleigh Fraser said six immigration officers turned up at her door, claiming she had violated her visa conditions. They demanded to have her passport “otherwise they would put me in handcuffs”. Kayleigh said she was then told to wait for seven days for “an investigation” to be carried out, before she could retrieve her documentation. The day before, she said she received “a panicked” phone call from an employee at the company which issued her visa, telling her to leave the country immediately because authorities were investigating her.
Speaking about her confrontation with immigration officials, Kayleigh said: “They accosted me in the street and were outside my house for about 40 minutes, but they couldn’t even tell me what I had done wrong. They kept saying I had violated the terms of my visa, but they didn’t even know what visa I was on until they finally got hold of my passport. I didn’t feel safe.”
Ms Fraser video-recorded her interaction with the officials, after she claimed two of them tried to barge into her home to get her passport. She can be heard telling them she feels like she is being harassed for drawing attention to the ongoing issues faced by the Sri Lankan public, such as inflation and fuel shortages.
The furore has since gone viral on social media with many Sri Lankans taking to Twitter to thank Kayleigh for standing with the people of Sri Lanka during these tough times and pointing out that President Wickremesinghe himself had told SkyNews TV in an interview when he was the Prime Minister just over a month ago that the country was safe for tourists and even foreigners can go around protesting with placards.
