A refugee who was wrongly recorded as being a child murderer by the Home Office says delays in his case have led to him wasting almost two decades of his life.
Mayooran Thangaratnam, a 41-year-old Tamil from Sri Lanka, fled to the UK in 2003 at the age of 23 and claimed asylum. He provided evidence to the Home Office from media reports that his father, a journalist who passed information to the UN about the Sri Lankan government’s persecution of Tamils, was murdered by Sri Lankan forces and that his life was also in danger.
However, the Home Office took just one week to refuse his asylum claim. He was ordered by officials to report regularly at Home Office centres and continued to do so for many years. The incorrect information that he was a child murderer is thought to have been added to his Home Office file in 2006.
The file note states: “They are of poor character due to multiple criminal convictions. He has been imprisoned for the murder of a one-year-old and got 16 years in 2004 for the crime.”
However, a report from the Police National Computer, which contains criminal records states: “There is no data held about you”.
Although his Home Office file states he was jailed for 16 years in 2004 their records also show that he was attending Home Office reporting centres as requested by officials during the period he was supposed to be in prison.
On three occasions – 2008, 2014 and 2018 – the Home Office tried to deport him. File notes state: “Are there any compassionate circumstances? None known.” The notes also state: “This applicant is not conducive to public good” and that “the case has been fully reviewed”.
Thangaratnam told the Guardian he has spent most of the last two decades in a state of profound despair. Although he was grieving for the brutal murder of his father, he arrived in the UK hoping to make a fresh start in a safe county. His plan was to go to university and study to become an accountant. Instead he spent his time reporting to the Home Office and living in a state of destitution – sofa surfing, living in temples and sometimes sleeping rough.
“I have been suicidal for so many years because of my treatment here. I have spent the best years of my life in limbo. I hoped to go to university and start a career but I’ve missed those opportunities now,” Thangaratnam said. “When I found out that the Home Office had a record on my file that I am a child murderer I felt more suicidal and very traumatised.”
A Home Office file note assessing his risk prior to a planned deportation states: “It is noted that the individual claims to suffer from depression. However, there is no professional evidence to corroborate this claim and as such a medic is not required.”
Thangaratnam appointed new lawyers in 2019 and in 2021 he was granted refugee status.
His current solicitor Naga Kandiah of MTC solicitors, has applied to the Home Office for indefinite leave to remain.
Kandiah said: “My client has been in limbo for half his life and the Home Office made several erroneous attempts to deport an innocent man.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “All asylum claims made in the UK are carefully considered on their individual merits, against a background of relevant case law and up to date country information.”
