Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in Tamil Nadu returns to Sri Lanka

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Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in Tamil Nadu returns to Sri Lanka
16 Sep 2010 - 09:07
Sri Lankan Tamil citizens who fled to Sri Lanka due to tiger terrorists in the North and East have started returning in boats even risking their lives, paying large sums of money to Indian fishing boat operators. Navy headquarters said that the Special Boat Squadron (SBS), operating close to the Indo-Lanka maritime boundary over the last weekend, had rescued 13 persons, including three children stranded on the seventh Sand Bank of the Adam’s Bridge off Talaimannar, who had arrived on Indian fishing crafts.
The group comprising seven men, three women and three children had paid Rs. 5,000 each for their passage. The Indian fishing craft had left them on the seventh Sand Bank at the edge of the Sri Lankan territorial waters to pave the way for the Sri Lankan navy to rescue them.These people had been living at Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Nanattan during the earlier phases of terrorist war, had been accommodated at the Mandapam refugee camp, in India.
According to Indian government figures some 73,000 Sri Lankan refugees are living in 112 camps in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu with a further 34,000 outside the camps.
Some refugees who fled Sri Lanka have also returned with the assistance of the UNCHR. Statistics provided by UNCHR show that in the first six months of this year, 852 refugees returned from India with UNHCR help compared to a total of 823 for all of 2009. A further 1,005 refugees returned on their own accord and approached UNHCR offices in Sri Lanka for assistance.
The peaceful situation prevalent in Sri Lanka following the defeat of terrorists and the government’s massive development activites in the North and East and the equal treatment for every one has encouraged these people to return and once again and consider Sri Lanka as their own motherland.(niz).Courtesy: News.