What now for Lankan Tamil refugees in India?

So it was quite shocking to hear the ex-parliamentarian attempt to portray what appears to be an administrative problem as an attempt by government ‘to frighten 10k others (refugees) who’ve registered to return’

On Thursday (29 May 2025) the plight of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees languishing in India was forcefully brought to our minds. A 75-year-old former Sri Lankan Tamil refugee returning from India was detained by immigration authorities. He was later remanded,  despite the victim’s refugee status being certified by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

The incoming former refugee was detained by immigration officials and subsequently remanded for a week –- the gentleman had left the country without a valid passport! So wherein lay the problem? The immigration officer was following the law. The Magistrate who imposed the detention order had no right to change the law - despite the 75-year-old being in possession of relevant documents.  

Former ITAK parliamentarian Sumanthiran, who appeared on behalf of the accused gentleman, raised a strange question: “is this a move by the government to frighten 10k others who’ve registered to return?” he asked on X. 

In parliament, Minister Bimal Ratnayake clarified that the detention was not government policy but an automatic application of the country’s laws. He assured immediate action to revise the process.

Sri Lankan Tamil refugees began fleeing to India in large numbers in 1983 as civilianswere caught up in fighting between Tamil militant groups and the Sri Lankan army. At the height of the ethnic crisis, particularly after the events of “Black July” 1983, over 300,000 Tamil refugees fled to India. The more affluent Tamil families moved to the developed countries of the West where they are now domiciled. 

Today, according to the ‘Forced Migration Review’, over 62,000 Tamil refugees continue to live in 107 camps spread throughout Tamil Nadu. Just under 37,000 more live outside the camps. The near 30-year ethnic war was brought to an end in 2009. Refugees who fled to the West have in the main been domiciled and absorbed into those societies. 

The northern Tamils who sought refuge in Colombo have long returned to their homes in the north. A majority of the armed militants who ‘surrendered’ have been rehabilitated by the state and released into society. Many Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) continue to work with war affected communities in the north, east and elsewhere in the country. 

Government looks after the needs of its war veterans. But the fate of Lankan Tamil refugees in India still hangs in the balance. They continue to live in camps and belong neither to Sri Lanka nor to India.

By a strange quirk of fate, none in Lanka either from the state sector, Tamil or Sinhala political parties or the NGOs have taken up the cause of the Tamil refugees living in refugee camps India with the urgency it deserves.

Minister Ratnayake, speaking on the issue of the arrest of the unfortunate  refugee returnee from India, mentioned that he and Minister Jeevan Thondaman visited refugee camps in India in 2007 and supported a 2008 law that granted citizenship to more than 28,500 Sri Lankans.

UN Resident Co-ordinator Marc-André Franche speaking to the media said:  “We applaud the government for extending a welcome to all returning refugees that have been displaced for decades”. 

So it was quite shocking to hear the ex-parliamentarian attempt to portray what appears to be an administrative problem as an attempt by government ‘to frighten 10k others (refugees) who’ve registered to return’.

These Tamil refugees are in a situation of statelessness. Despite the northern province having been administered by Tamil political parties since war’s end, little if any effort was made to seek the return of Tamil refugees languishing in camps in India.Even at the northern provincial council level, little was done to create conditions to ease their return.

It is as if these people did not exist.

Perhaps, this may be ONE of the reasons the JVP/NPP combine was able to make inroads into what was once a bastion of Tamil nationalism in the peninsula. In the context of this particular problem, the ex-MP’s quote on ‘X’, appears to be an attempt to deceive the Tamil people by raising false bogeys.

It appears to be an attempt to try to regain lost political ground by shifting responsibility and rousing ethnic bias – SHAME!