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Govt. plans in place as Lankans return in numbers from TN
The Government has formulated a comprehensive national policy to step up the resettlement process in the former war torn areas with the voluntary return of thousands of Sri Lankan refugees living in Tamil Nadu, a senior official of the ministry said.
Ministry of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs Secretary V. Sivagnanasothy told the Sunday Times that during the course of this year, the Government is expecting the return of at least 30,000 Sri Lankans living in special camps in South India.
“Once this policy, which covers durable solutions for conflict affected displacement, is underway the numbers might go up, because the people will know what the ground situation is and how the Government is responding to the issues pertaining to the resettlement process,” he said.
With technical assistance from UN agencies, a comprehensive draft policy paper titled “Formulation of National Policy on Durable Solutions for Conflict Affected Displacement” was discussed this week at length by the ministry.
While recognising that the durable solutions should safeguard the rights and well being of the conflict affected families and allow them to rebuild their lives in dignity and peace, it encourages the voluntary repatriation of refugees to return home and get them locally and socially integrated.
According to Mr. Sivagnanasothy, the lessons learnt by the senior team of officials, from the Australian experience on the indigenous aboriginal community, was also contextualised and factored into the policy with experiences of other countries.
“We will continue to facilitate the return home of refugees by arranging all needs and requirements to make sure that on their own they can support their daily lives. We realised there should be a long term durable solution for the returnees,” he said.
At a national steering committee meeting, a national policy had been formulated to provide a clear road map and strengthen the peace building and reconciliation process. The policy provides conflict affected families with legal and physical protection, access to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and access to vocational training, health care, education and employment.
The Government’s move to speed up the resettlement process comes in the wake of increasing suicide incidents by Lankan refugees in camps in Tamil Nadu.
Yesterday a Sri Lankan refugee residing at Tiruvanamalai, a sub-urban city of Tamil Nadu tried to commit suicide at a bus stand but was saved by onlookers.
In a separate incident early this month, another Lankan refugee committed suicide by electrocuting himself following an incident with a revenue inspector of the camp.