‘Give Sri Lankan refugees repatriate status’

Perumal was working as a tea plucker in an estate in Sri Lanka, before arriving in India in a boat in 1983 soon after the civil war broke out in the island nation. He told the authorities here that he was a repatriate under the Sirimavo-Shastri Pact signed between the two countries in 1964. But, he and his wife were registered as refugees here. After being lodged in Mandapam and Madras (now Chennai) camps, he was shifted to Tiruchi. His son Muthu, who was born here, is now an electrician and is married to a Malayalee settled down in Tamil Nadu. Perumal and his wife, who promptly return to the camp and attend the roll call every day, still long for their old life back in their native land. But for Muthu, Tamil Nadu is his home.

The Perumals don’t have a statehood. More worse, they neither belong to India nor Sri Lanka. “For children born after 1983, Sri Lanka is not a place they ever called home and they identify more with India. They need to be given citizenship,” points out Ashik Bonofer, Assistant Professor, Madras Christian College, who has researched the refugee situation extensively. “The 24,000 people, who came to India in 1983 deserve the status of repatriates. Now, the number has gone up to over 33,000. The children born here have married locals, but what is their identity,” he asks.

S.C. Chandrahasan, a Sri Lankan advocate, now residing in Chennai, is the founder of Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR). While he is in favour of granting Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status for those who have lived in India for more than 20 years and those who were born here, he also supports the return of refugees to their land. According to statistics available with him, there are around 1,00,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, out of which around 60,000 are still in camps. If no steps are taken to rectify this situation, the odds are that the refugees will remain stateless for the rest of their lives. 

Professor Gladston Xavier, Head of the Department of Social Work, Loyola College, calls for a passport-free system that allows the refugees to move between the two countries. “An arrangement like the ASEAN agreement which facilitates easy movement of labour between Philippines and Thailand or Cambodia and the Phillipines would be ideal. We would not need refugee camps in such a situation,” he says.