Lankan refugees to return from India
Thousands of Sri Lankan refugees living in India are ready to return to their homeland decades after fleeing civil war, according to a rights group that said returnees will receive a plot of land and other assistance.
Nearly 4,000 of more than 62,000 refugees living in camps in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu have registered to return in the coming months, said Ashok Xavier at the non-profit Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation.
Each family will receive a cash grant, livelihood assistance, a small plot of land, and a home, he said.
They will also get help acquiring documentation needed to claim these benefits and establish citizenship, he added
"For those who want to go back, it will be a safe, sustainable and voluntary return," said Xavier.
"And it won't be to another camp, but to their own home," he said in Bangkok, on the sidelines of a refugee conference.
Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands uprooted from their homes in a war that lasted nearly three decades. Most were Tamils, an ethnic and religious Hindu minority.
Many sought refuge in neighbouring India, particularly in Tamil Nadu. The conflict ended in 2009.
Thousands of acres of land taken over during the war are still held by government forces, said a report of Human Rights Watch.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has said that all civilian lands held by the state in the northern and eastern provinces would be released by December 31.
Comments