COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office
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7 MARCH <strong>2012</strong> SRI LANKA<br />
The team from the High Commission noted during their visit that there were no checkpoints in<br />
Jaffna town. The drive along the A9 from Jaffna to Vavuniya revealed only three checkpoints;<br />
the first at Elephant Pass, the second just south of Kilinochchi, and the third at Omanthai. At the<br />
first two, barriers were raised to allow vehicles through without stopping. The Omanthai<br />
checkpoint was the only checkpoint where vehicles were made to stop and occupants to<br />
produce documentation. NGO and humanitarian agencies told us that this was mainly to check<br />
whether the foreign employees of these organisations had the required MoD clearance to<br />
enter/remain in the Vanni. Locals were allowed to pass freely.<br />
Humanitarian<br />
A Senior Military Official in Jaffna said that the SLA had been involved in humanitarian projects,<br />
assisting in the building of 680 houses for IDPs. He added that 78,000 IDPs had returned to the<br />
Jaffna District, only 50 had been previously resident outside of the district. He said that there<br />
were no tensions between the IDPs and the resident community. With regard to transit camps,<br />
he told us that there was only one in Jaffna district which currently held around 2,900 IDPs. He<br />
added that they would require shelters when released.<br />
With regard to ex-combatants the Senior Military Official in Jaffna merely repeated the<br />
government line that these persons would only be released after re-habilitation. Although there<br />
was still a camp at Tellippalai over 200 had been returned to their families. We were told that<br />
none were being detained under the PTA, those that had been had either been released or<br />
transferred out of the district.<br />
A Senior Government Official in Jaffna stated that 70,000 IDPs had arrived in Jaffna from the<br />
Vanni, Mullaitivu and Trincomalee before Christmas 2009 and been settled with the help of the<br />
Sri Lankan Army. They had been given grants of Rs 5,000 (£29) on arrival and a subsequent Rs<br />
20,000 (£116) through UNHCR. There remained camps containing 200 families, and<br />
approximately 7,000 were in tents and temporary shelters waiting to return home. In total he<br />
said that there were 52,000 war damaged houses that needed re-building.<br />
A group of TNA MPs said that a majority of families remaining in camps had women as heads of<br />
the family. They complained bitterly that the government would still not release the names of the<br />
ex LTTE combatants currently detained. We were told that 46,000 were still in camps in the<br />
Jaffna peninsular, and that whilst children were going to school, many were under-nourished<br />
because the camps had ceased proving breakfast. They claimed there was a high rate of<br />
malnutrition.<br />
A Human Rights spokesman based in Jaffna said that 78,000 IDPs had returned to Jaffna. In<br />
many cases they had just been returned and there had been no resettlement. Some of them<br />
had received a settlement award of Rs 50,000 (£290). Many of them are still with host families.<br />
They told us that there were no closed camps within Jaffna district for IDPs although they<br />
thought that there was a closed camp in Palaly for ex-combatants.<br />
A group of humanitarian aid workers told us that many IDPs, having returned to the district six<br />
months ago were now struggling as they had no money. In many cases the host families were<br />
not a welcoming as they had originally been. There were also complaints that many families<br />
were unable to return to their homes because they were occupied by the military.<br />
The main text of this <strong>COI</strong> <strong>Report</strong> contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section<br />
to 2 <strong>March</strong> <strong>2012</strong>.<br />
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