News
Foreign refugees to be temporarily relocated in Vavuniya
Moves are underway to settle more than 1,060 foreign refugees in a government-run rehabilitation centre in Vavuniya, but opposition to their presence is surfacing even there.
On Friday night, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) officials transported 35 refugees from Negombo to Vavuniya’s Poonthottam Co-Operative College Rehabilitation Centre, where thousands of former LTTE cadres had undergone rehabilitation.
Before the transfer, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana held a meeting at the Vavuniya District Secretariat with area politicians and officials. The Minister told them that the refugees would be sheltered in Vavuniya only for two month as a temporary measure.
However, officials told the Sunday Times that area politicians were not satisfied with the minister’s assurance. The politicians had said the centre was the only facility in the district to train co-operative officers and, therefore, the Government should return it to the local authority. It had been under Army control for ten years.
The UNHCR has made arrangements to provide food to the refugees through an area NGO.
The refugees are from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria. They had earlier been living in Negombo. After the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks, they were forcibly evicted from their lodgings by residents. Since then, they have been sheltered in the police station and an Ahmadi mosque in Negombo.