Govt, UNHCR continue to assist displaced people
The Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development Ministry
jointly with the Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry and
the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
have compiled statistics of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
According to these statistics, the total number of IDPs as at October
1 is 51,908 families (190,669 persons), the Ministries said.
The Government is committed to settling back the IDPs in their
original homes. In the Eastern Province over 108,000 IDPs have already
returned to their homes.
The remaining IDPs numbering about 13,877 families in the East
(50,136 persons) will be settled when these areas have been cleared of
land mines.
The settlement of IDPs back in their homes has been a voluntary
process and it has been undertaken according to international standards.
This has been acknowledged by the international community including the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food
Programme (WFP).
The IDPs in Sri Lanka are a result of the conflict and the tsunami of
December 2004.
About 90,000 Muslims in Jaffna became internally displaced overnight
when the LTTE evicted them from Jaffna in 1990, and the majority of them
has not yet been able to return to their original places of living upto
date.
The breakdown of IDPs prior to 2005, tsunami affected IDPs
and the new IDPs are given below.
District IDPs-Tsunami IDPs-conflict IDPs-conflict
affected affected prior affected from
December 2005 January 2006
Families Persons Families Persons Families Persons
Jaffna 31,172 108,225 6,786 24,151
Kilinochchi 1,391 5,526 4,931 20,081 12,517 48,512
Mullaitivu 680 2,788 14,599 68,694 9,060 32,323
Mannar 5,600 21,774 5,834 21,928
Vavuniya 15,686 62,787 3,072 10,306
Trincomalee 205 721 1,815 6,131
Batticaloa 1,836 6,872 10,319 38,230
Ampara 54 197 1,743 5,775
Puttalam 16,4046 6,657 606 2,739
Other districts 156 574
Total 51,908 190,669
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