{"id":226903,"date":"2023-02-16T21:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T15:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=226903"},"modified":"2023-02-20T12:49:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-20T07:19:08","slug":"indias-sri-lankan-refugees-need-fair-consideration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-sri-lankan-refugees-need-fair-consideration\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Sri Lankan refugees need fair consideration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cIndia\u2019s Sri Lankan refugees need fair consideration\u201d <\/strong>published in<strong> The Hindu <\/strong>on <strong>16th February 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- International relations<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>&#8211; Issues related to refugees<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; The article explains the issues of Tamil refugees in India<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the status of Tamil refugees and policy priorities of the Indian government for them?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>Ministry of Home Affairs in its 2021-2022 Annual Report<\/strong> states that <strong>3,04,269 Sri Lankan refugees<\/strong> entered India between July 1983 and August 2012.<\/p>\n<p>In India, 58,648 refugees are residing in 108 camps in Tamil Nadu while 54 are in Odisha.<\/p>\n<p>Another 34,135 refugees registered with Tamil Nadu authorities reside outside camps.<\/p>\n<p>They were provided <strong>relief including shelter, subsidised ration, educational assistance, medical care and cash allowance<\/strong>s.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>objective of the Government<\/strong> of India remains the <strong>repatriation of refugees<\/strong> to Sri Lanka. 99,469 refugees were repatriated to Sri Lanka up to March 1995 and no organised repatriation was done thereafter.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What were the steps taken by the government for reconstruction in Sri Lanka after the end of the civil war?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The Government of Sri Lanka constituted the <strong>Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission in 2010<\/strong>. Its <strong>observations and recommendations on human rights, international humanitarian law, land rights, resettlement and reconciliation<\/strong> are noteworthy.<\/p>\n<p>The Government of Sri Lanka, and development partners initiated programmes in the Northern and Eastern provinces, with objectives of <strong>resettlement,restoration of critical infrastructure, livelihoods and social services to the local population<\/strong>. This led to <strong>significant improvements.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The government expenditure in the Northern and Eastern Provinces during 2009-18 is reported to be<strong> $3.8 billion <\/strong>with another $3.4 billion by development partners.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the challenges faced by reconstruction efforts in current times?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>There is a <strong>lack of funds <\/strong>for recovery needs.<\/p>\n<p>The Easter Bombings in 2019 followed by COVID-19 slowed the development process. It was further compounded by the<strong> economic and political crises in 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Th<strong>e latest World Bank Sri Lanka Updat<\/strong>e says that the poverty has more than doubled over the past few years, and<strong> poverty and vulnerability<\/strong> will continue to rise without appropriate support.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Who are Hill Tamils and what are their specific concerns?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Amongst the refugees, there are 30,000 Persons of Indian Origin. They are known as \u201cHill Tamils. They have claim to Sri Lankan citizenship via the Indo-SriLanka Agreements of 1964, 1974 and 1987 and amendments to the Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>Lack of documents as well as a desire to continue in India di#differentiates them from other refugees. They may need special consideration.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the issue of repatriation of refugees?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Today, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India who wish to <strong>return voluntarily<\/strong> are being facilitated by the Government of Sri Lanka. Over the last year, 208 individuals have returned voluntarily, supported by the Government of India, bilateral donors and the UNHCR.<\/p>\n<p>India possesses the <strong>capacity and the legal framework<\/strong> to find durable solutions to the refugee situation in Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n<p>Voluntary return is the <strong>most desired choice<\/strong> to end refugee status.<\/p>\n<p>There is a significant population which may not wish to return. This is a cohort <strong>born and educated in India with no knowledge or experience<\/strong> of their country of origin.<\/p>\n<p>A solution that provides relief from enduring refugee status is the need of the hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cIndia\u2019s Sri Lankan refugees need fair consideration\u201d published in The Hindu on 16th February 2023. Syllabus: GS2- International relations Relevance&#8211; Issues related to refugees News&#8211; The article explains the issues of Tamil refugees in India What is the status of Tamil refugees and policy priorities of the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-sri-lankan-refugees-need-fair-consideration\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India\u2019s Sri Lankan refugees need fair consideration<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-226903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}