High drama preceded the presentation of a petition by a small number of Sri Lankan refugees to the Deputy Chief of the Mission of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Besant Nagar on Friday.
The refugees claimed that their relatives, who attempted to go to Australia by boats, were abducted by Somalia pirates last year. The refugees in Chennai received ‘missed calls’ from their relatives. Attempts to reach them proved futile as the pirates spoke in their language. The refugees wanted to hand over a petition to the UNHCR to seek its help in rescuing their relatives.
Nearly 125 people, including women and children, arrived at the Besant Nagar bus terminus around 11.45 a.m. They were stopped by police while proceeding to the office.
The refugees assured the police that they would not create any problem and sought permission to go to the UNHCR office.
The police allowed the refugees up to Third Main Road and said only a few of their representatives could be allowed to go to the office.
When the representatives went to the UNHCR office, a woman employee asked them whether they had any petition to be handed over to the Mission. The refugees demanded that the Mission should come out and accept the petition from the waiting children
The women assured the representatives that she would come out in five minutes. However, the refugees and the media were forced to wait for more than an hour outside the office with no response from them.
Dharna
When the agitated refugees sat on a ‘dharna’ on the third main road, the police authorities intervened. Finally around 1.15 p.m. the representatives were allowed to enter the office and hand over the petition.
