Asylum seekers who sought protection in Australia and were returned to Sri Lanka say they have been tortured, in new claims aired on SBS.

In an SBS Dateline program aired on Tuesday night two asylum seekers – known as Bhanu and Narada – made allegations they had been tortured after being returned to Sri Lanka from Australia.

Despite the end of the civil war in 2009 between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam there have continued to be allegations of torture and rape of Tamils by the government.

Bhanu told the program: “They always hit me. They took this nail and this nail and this nail, they removed, with one of those things they use with electricity.

“They put two chairs with a pole between them and tied me like this – very painful.”

Narada also said he was taken to a Sri Lankan government building in Colombo and hung upside down from the roof.

“They hoisted me up, with my torso hanging down,” he said. “After that … they used a hammer, they placed a book on my head and hit it with a hammer. It made me pass urine and defecate when they hit me like that. After that, they hosed me from my head down. I think they did that because of the smell of faeces.”

The SBS report said documents obtained under freedom of information laws showed the Australian government was aware of Narada’s claims.

The documents reportedly showed the Australian federal police were also aware of the torture claims but chose not to ask the asylum seeker personally about them.

“In the interests of keeping our distance from the Sri Lankan investigation, we do not intend to take up the offer to meet with him,” they quoted the police as saying.

In a live interview with SBS Dateline on Tuesday night the Sri Lankan high commissioner to Australia, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, denied the allegations.

“It could be appearing to be true to you, to any particular person,” he said. “The specifics are that it is obviously doctored and it has been timed at times when there are a lot of attempts by various quarters to damage Sri Lanka’s image and bring out certain atrocities that are not true.”

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said in a statement: “The information as provided means the claims cannot be substantiated or disproved.

“The allegations are in such a form that it is impossible to determine their credibility.

“Statements of ambiguous and anonymous claims where there are no dates and identities to enable these claims to be followed up renders the exercise inconclusive.”

(The Guardian)