The government brought men, women and children back from Vavuniya, 260km north of Colombo, after President Mahinda Rajapakse invited them and ordered disciplinary action against the police chief.

"Most people came back for medical treatment or to secure employment to go overseas," said a senior police official who was involved in Thursday's operation to evict Tamils.

He declined to be named saying he was already in trouble with the Supreme Court, which rapped him and issued an order preventing him and other police officers repeating their illegal eviction of Tamil civilians.

The officer, pleading that he was only carrying out orders given by his superiors, said more than 150 people have returned to the city out of more than 350 bussed out on Thursday in the pre-dawn swoop.

Heavily-armed police and troops forced hundreds of minority Tamils on to buses and took them away.

"We were asked to go back to our villages, but the government dropped us off at a detention camp in Vavuniya," 64-year old woman, Jainthi, a resident from Jaffna said.

Seated in a cramped rented room in Colombo, Jainthi, who gave only her first name for fear of reprisal, said aid workers and government officials at the detention centre gave them food and medical help.

"I have high blood pressure, and they gave me some medicine. I came to Colombo for medical treatment while I waited for embassy papers to go and stay with my son in Canada," she said.

S Subramaniam, who runs the budget Uthayan Rest in Colombo's Wellawatte neighbourhood said police rounded up 27 of his 42 guests and took them to the nearby police station, before sending them to a detention centre in the north.

"Most of my guests were here in transit, waiting to go abroad for jobs, to get married or to attend to their personal matters. Only six people made use of the government's offer to return," Subramanium said.

At the nearby the budget Ideal Lodge, 25-year-old Gajan from Jaffna played cards with fellow returnees Thulan and Mahesh outside their rented rooms.

Gajan and his 67-year old mother had come to Colombo to get a visa to migrate to Germany.

His mother who declined to be named, had pleaded with policemen not to send them back, because they had very little money left.

"It takes at least eight weeks to get embassy papers sorted out, sometimes its more. So we need the money to stay here. Its expensive to live in Colombo," Gajan's mother said.

Ideal Lodge owner, 62-year old Thambiah said the authorities took away 29 people from his inn, but only 26 returned accepting President Mahinda Rajapakse's invitation on Friday.