Responding to a question from Tamil legislator Charles Nirmalanathan, from Mannar district, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe recently told Parliament that his government would extend all support to Sri Lankan refugees who wish to return from India.
The assurance is significant, especially to the nearly 4,000 persons in India who have expressed their desire to get back to the island. Though a fraction of the total 1,00,000 Sri Lankan refugees who live in India, they may be representing a shade of opinion that is growing popular among refugees — return home now, almost 10 years after the civil war ended. However, between their desire and the Prime Minister’s assurance are many hurdles — both administrative and logistical.
To start with, a daunting task of paperworks awaits them. The Sri Lankan High Commission in Chennai is helping refugees obtain the necessary documents, including birth certificates for their children born in India, in addition to citizenship certificates and passports. The Sri Lankan government now provides the services free of charge, which is welcome, but that does not make the procedure easier. Getting citizenship documents requires a time-consuming vetting process, marked by bureaucratic delays. But that is not all. Even after getting the necessary papers in order, the actual journey back is far from simple. Expecting a family that has lived in India for 10 or 20 years to return on a flight with 30 kg baggage allowance would be rather unfair.
“Some of these families may have purchased items like a sewing machine or a refrigerator during their time in India. They won’t have the money to come back and buy all of that again,” Mr. Nirmalanathan, the parliamentarian from Mannar, told The Hindu.
Authorities in India and Sri Lanka are said to be mulling other modes, including by sea, to address this challenge.
Different challenges
If the pre-departure process and actual journey back are complicated, it’s not like things get instantly better for them when they land in Sri Lanka.
The Hindu’s earlier interviews with returnees — nearly 10,000 have returned since 2010 — revealed how being back home meant taking on a series of new challenges. This is not the country they left.
And for some, this is not the country they imagined returning to. For many, there is no trace of their homes or sight of the land they owned. There are no known neighbours, no familiar grocery shop at the corner at their place of return.
For the younger returnees, converting their Class 12 mark sheets to corresponding documents that are valid in universities in Sri Lanka has proved difficult. Some spoke of how their Tamil, different from the variant spoken in Jaffna, was mocked. But that is the only Tamil that the returnees, growing up in Tamil Nadu, learnt to speak.
“There are different challenges. But land, homes and livelihoods — these are the fundamental needs for any returnee. And isn’t that the Sri Lankan government’s responsibility?” Mr. Nirmalanathan asked. There is a need for a comprehensive plan and a support system, including financial assistance, for at least a year into resettling, he said.
A returnee told this correspondent sometime ago: “Life is not easy here, I am waiting for the military to return my land [which she eventually got]. It’s true, we led a relatively comfortable life in India and they took good care of us in Tamil Nadu. But at the end of the day, we were still called a refugee.”
Meera Srinivasan works for The Hindu and is based in Colombo.