Need serious dialogue for repatriation of Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu

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Interacting with reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia (FCC) here, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India, Austin Fernando, said he has planned to “meet the refugees” in Tamil Nadu and other people to hold consultations.

“What we know is that about 100,000 of them (refugees) are there in south India. And, nearly 20 to 30 per cent do not want to return to Lanka and stay back,” said Fernando.

“Sri Lanka needs to give them feeling that they will have food, shelter, education for their children and means for livelihood when they go back. We have to work on that. We have to ensure that they are safe when they are back,” he said, adding, “There are a few logistical issues”.

“There are these basic issues like whether they will go by ferry or ships, that have to be worked out,” Fernando said.

“India has been hosting Lankan refugees for the past 20-25 years… And, we are working on the (repatriation) issue, but we need serious dialogues on the matter,” he said, “we seek help from all quarters”.

More than 3,000 Sri Lankan refugees, who were staying in India, had left for their home country since 2015, the Tamil Nadu government had said last July.

Over 3.04 lakh Sri Lankan Tamil refugees had come to Tamil Nadu following the ethnic violence in the island republic in 1984, a policy note of the Public Department, a portfolio held by Chief Minister K Palaniswami, tabled in the state Assembly had said.