The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) has stated that Internally Displaced Persons within the island of Sri Lanka are still ‘in need of protection and assistance’, in their latest Global Overview report.
The report noted that the number of IDPs had risen to 28.8 million last year, particularly noting the conflicts in Syria and the Democratic Republic Congo had significantly pushed up the numbers of displaced.
On Sri Lanka the report stated,
“Hundreds of thousands of current and former IDPs in Sri Lanka remained in need of protection and assistance as of the end of 2012… More than 93,000 people were still living in camps, with host communities or in transit situations. Of more than 480,000 people who had returned to Northern and Eastern provinces, many are still to achieve durable solutions”.
The IDMC was also critical of the government’s increasing militarisation in the North-East, stating,
“Of more than 1,300 IDPs still living in the camp in September, 560 were unable to return to their home areas because they were occupied by the Mullaitivu Security Force headquarters. Instead they were relocated, many of them against their will.
Military occupation of land is preventing around 26,000 people from returning across the north and east of Sri Lanka, and it is estimated that more than 3,000 people have been relocated, in many cases involuntarily.”
It went on to say,
“A year later, however, the number of troops in Northern province was still high, and the military continued to compete economically with small businesses run by conflict-affected people who were trying to become independent of aid. It also reportedly cultivated crops on land which IDPs had been told they could not return to".
"The military continued to engage in activities that fall within the remit of a civil administration, including the authorisation of community meetings or events, and the registration of civilian families in many northern villages, whether they had been displaced or not. Female-headed households reported feeling particularly insecure as a result of military visits. Protracted Tamil IDPs in the Northern Province and in Trincomalee have been unable to return to land that the military is occupying, and to date they have received no support towards a durable solution.”
Read the full report on Sri Lanka here.