Peace prevails in the country :

Returning refugees need guidance

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

A helping hand to a returning rufugee

Refugee families, happy to be back in their homeland

They opted to journey risking their lives in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mannar to flee the country when the flames of war engulfed their homesteads in the past two decades. They, the Tamil civilians in the North and East, had to take that risky journey to neighbouring India as they were reluctant to keep their children in Sri Lanka fearing that they be conscripted to the LTTE.

So they crossed the Gulf of Mannar in small fishing boats paying exhorbitant prices to fishermen to get them out of Sri Lankan territorial waters and become refugees in neighbouring India. It became a nuisance to the Navy personnel patrolling the India-Sri Lanka Maritime Boundary Line amidst the existence of a terror outfit considered the most ruthless in the world.

The LTTE sometimes used these innocent Tamil civilians as shields to cover up their terror activities and also to influence the Indian Government against Sri Lanka by sending them in an organized manner to give a wrong impression to the world that these Tamil civilians were harassed by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.

So they ended up in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu-the most favoured destination of the Tamil civilians who fled the country during the North East conflict. Those who went in search of new vistas ended up spending their lives in refugee camps with no progress.

Today, one year and four months after that glorious day when the Sri Lankan Security Forces eliminated the terror outfit that had become a menace to the entire country, the situation has seen a reverse trend.

Instead of talking about the civilians fleeing the country the authorities concerned have now observed a trend where many Sri Lankan refugees return to the country having heard of the remarkable progress the country has shown in resettlement.

When a section of the international community is talking about boat loads of Sri Lankan refugees reaching Western countries seeking refuge, a large section of Tamil civilians who had fled to India are now returning to their homeland as they see that the country is safer for them than the countries they sought refuge in sometime ago.

Twenty-nine-year-old Anthonipillai Jayakanthan, a Tamil civilian from Mannar who had fled the country when he was eight years old fearing LTTE conscription is one such person who had decided to return to Sri Lanka.

Although he fled the country alone in 1990, he has returned to it along with his wife, J. Sriyani and two children after a 20 year stay in India. Jayakanthan married Sriyani, a girl who had fled Sri Lanka and lived in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu.

Same mode

After a two decade stay in Tamil Nadu they decided to return to their homeland two weeks ago. However, it's pathetic that they had opted to the same mode they used to flee the country to make their return journey also.

They were among the 13 people rescued by the Sri Lanka Navy on September 11, at the seventh sand bank of Adam's Bridge off Thalaimannar.

The India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line goes through the 7th and 8th sand banks of Adam's Bridge between Sri Lanka and India and many people who get the contract for human trafficking used to dump them on those sand banks.

According to Navy spokesman Captain Athula Senerath, there are 17 to 18 sand banks in Adam's Bridge and many of the refugees crossing the IMBL between the two countries are found dumped in those sand banks.

"Those who come from India are normally dumped after passing the eighth sand bank in the Bridge", he added.

The Special Boat Squadron of the Sri Lanka Navy patrolling the IMBL had found them dumped in the seventh sand bank and they were later taken to Thalaimannar to be handed over to the Police.

They have been identified as residents of Vavuniya, Jaffna, Mannar and Nanattan who had fled the country in 1990, 1996 and 2000 respectively.

According to Captain Senerath, seven males, three females and three children made up the group of three families.

"They had lived in the Mandapam refugee camp in Tamil Nadu for a long period and had decided to return to Sri Lanka after they heard the situation was much better in Sri Lanka now", Captain Senerath added.

Anthonipillai Jeyakanthan who was among the 13 rescued by the Navy also expressed the same sentiments.

According to the group, they had paid 5,000 Indian Rupees for each person to the boat owners for their return to Sri Lanka. Although they thought that they would be brought to the shores of Sri Lanka they were dumped in the sand banks putting their lives at risk again.

They were not the first set of people who had opted to return to Sri Lanka taking this risky journey. The Navy detected another set of five persons in March this year in the same area.

"Out of this set of people there were three men from Jaffna and Vavuniya who had fled the country due to the war situation in the North and East. There was a person from Kandy who had gone to India through legal channels for business purposes. He also had decided to return to Sri Lanka since he had not made any progress in his businesses there", Captain Senerath said.

Rescued

After the war ended in May 2009, the Navy detected the first set of people returning to Sri Lanka in December 2009 when six persons were rescued from the 6th sand bank of Adam's Bridge. The group consisted of two males, two females and two children.

Again on February 19 this year, three males and two children were rescued from the 6th sand bank by Navy personnel patrolling the sea off Thalaimannar.

On May 4, one man was rescued from the 8th sand bank of Adam's Bridges and another four males and eight males were rescued respectively on July 6 and July 15 from the 7th and 8th sand banks, Captain Senerath said.

"The Navy fast attack gun boats and fast attack craft from the Northern Naval Command are patrolling the northern seas and the inshore patrol craft and rapid action boat squadron deployed in the sea off Thalaimanar would detect refugees returning to the country during the past few months", Captain Senerath said.

"We are constantly on vigilance on drug traffickers and human smugglers using our waters", he said.

"Those people who are willingly returning to Sri Lanka after their long stay in India need a proper system to return to the country rather than going through this risky journey paying huge sums to fishermen", he said.

UNHCR

Spokesperson for the UNHCR office in Colombo, Ozgul Ozcan told the Sunday Observer that UNHCR has observed a trend of increasing numbers of Sri Lankan refugees returning home from India in comparison to last year.

According to her in the first eight months of 2010 from January 1 to August 30 about 1,150 refugees returned voluntarily from India with UNHCR's help compared to 843 refugees for all of 2009.

Sri Lankan refugees in India - around 100,000 in total - mainly live in 112 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu in South India.

There are about 72,000 in the camps, and there are also around 34,000 living outside the camps.

"We expect this upward trend to continue. There are also refugees who have returned on their own, some of whom approach our office. At our last count 1,005 spontaneously returning refugees approached UNHCR offices in Sri Lanka reporting they had returned on their own but the overall number of spontaneous returns could be much higher", she added.

She said that Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu could contact UNHCR's office in Chennai when they wished to come back home.

"UNHCR organises and pays for their flights to Colombo, and then provides a transportation grant that covers the train and bus fares to their home areas in the north of the country. After arriving back in their home area they can contact the nearest local UNHCR office for a standard package of non-food items - the basic essentials to help them restart their lives such as cooking sets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, plastic sheets etc. We can also offer advice on some issues such as where to go to get replacement documentation or other help they might need", she added.

"Refugees who have returned on their own, 'spontaneous returnees', can also contact UNHCR's local office for the non-food item kit", she added.

UNHCR stresses that all returning refugees must do so voluntarily - that is, of their own free will. All around the world UNHCR has seen similar stories that when a conflict ends refugees start coming back home. Most refugees want to live in their own country, be near their families, have their children grow up in their own culture, and often, importantly, they want to reclaim their land.

But what should be highlighted here is that many people who are unaware of the opportunities available to them are unnecessarily risking their lives in returning to their motherland that is now free of terror after decades of stay in refugee camps in India.