UN expert flags forceful evictions, microfinance debt as threats to human rights and calls on the authorities to take immediate measures to rectify them.
United Nations Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly, economic, social and cultural rights, Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, concluded a nearly week-long visit in Sri Lanka this Tuesday (11) and issued a detailed report stating the shortcomings he saw in Sri Lanka, especially, with regard to forceful evictions and microfinance debt.
He said, following the end of the war in 2009, large-scale infrastructure projects increased and in that backdrop as of today, the loans Sri Lanka has taken from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan, Korea, India and China alone stood at USD 19.3 billion. That amounts to 48 per cent of the total loans taken by the State.
On the other hand these development projects have posed a threat to human rights.
“The Urban Regeneration Programme, a project implemented since the early 2010s, intends to transform the city of Colombo into “a world recognized city” and has implied the relocation of more than 50, 000 families between 2010-2014 living in informal settlements and similar areas into new housing schemes,” Bohoslavsky points out.
He added, in 2014 the Special Rapporteur on housing brought to the attention of the Government, information pertaining to the evictions of local populations in Colombo without due process. He said, a large number of families who were thus evicted have not been given adequate compensation or alternate housing.
Independent researcher and curator of the ‘Right to the city’ initiative Iromi Perera told the Sunday Observer , that some 65,000 people were forcefully relocated to high-rise buildings located in the North of Colombo. “This situation is pretty bad,” Perera said.
“I learned that while the universe of borrowers is broad, women in poor and war affected areas are specially targeted by microfinance financial institutions, which charge their loans, with interest rates as high as 220 per cent, and apply compound interest,” Bohoslavsky said.
“This situation is quite serious in the North and East where there is a vulnerable economy,” Jaffna-based political economist Dr. Ahilan Kadirgamar said.
“Currently, the Government is discussing an MOU with these microfinance companies to bring a 35 per cent interest cap,” he said. Dr. Kadirgamar is hopeful, the 2019 budget will introduce special measures to lift the burden of the debt- ridden low-income families.