Colombo, July 14: Sri Lankan Tamils, who had sought refuge in southern India to escape unrest at home, are returning to the island on their own in batches. A pro-rebel website reported that 21 refugees returned yesterday to the islet of Nedunthivu off the Jaffna peninsula. They had travelled in a boat from south India. On Friday, 13 refugees returned to Nedunthivu in an Indian trawler, the website reported.
The refugees, who arrived yesterday, will be allowed to go back to their own villages today after being registered at the rehabilitation branch in the Jaffna district secretariat. More Sri Lankan Tamil refugees staying in Tamil Nadu welfare centres are getting ready to return to Jaffna district in the coming days, some of the returnees said, according to humanitarian agencies in Jaffna.
Several Tamil refugees have already informed their Indian camp officials their intention to return to Jaffna on their own if the authorities failed to send them back, the website quoted its sources as saying.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that some 300,000 internally displaced people had gone back to their homes in Sri Lanka's embattled regions following a truce arranged by Norway. Bureau Report