Sri Lanka deports woman over tattoo

Sri Lanka, bastion of fairness, freedom, democracy, bla bla.... Well they're such a bastion that Abbott gave them two of our Navy boats in November last year, just to help them out patrolling for asylum seekers trying to get to Australia. This caused quite a stir at the time here, particularly with the Greens who questioned Abbott's wisdom in gifting military equipment to a country with such a poor human rights record:

The Greens have criticised the new deal with Sri Lanka, with party leader Christine Milne saying Australia should not collaborate with the country because of its human rights record.

"In order to sure up Tony Abbott's cruel and hollow policy to stop the boats he is resorting to collaboration with Sri Lanka and will turn a blind eye to human rights abuses," she said in a statement.

"This has nothing to do with fairness, justice or saving lives.

"Any resources provided to Sri Lanka would be better spent in leading a genuine regional solution that cares for refugees by bringing more of them to Australia and by pushing for global action to investigate alleged war crimes." more 

Now whenever I see a story about Sri Lanka I always think of those two Australian Navy boats now being used there. Well just in case we'd all forgotten about the boats gift, here's a little reminder about just how bad they are with human rights. This British tourist was arrested and deported because her tattoo was deemed to have hurt people's religious feelings: 

A British tourist is to be deported from Sri Lanka, after she was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport in the capital Colombo for having a tattoo of Buddha on her arm. 

Naomi Michelle Coleman had arrived at the airport from India, and was detained when the tattoo of a Buddha seated on a lotus flower was spotted on her right arm, according to Sri Lankan police officials. 

After her arrest Coleman, appeared before a magistrate who ordered her deportation, which will take place “very soon…tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” a police spokesman said. 

He added that the 37-year-old was arrested for “hurting others' religious feelings”. more