SRI LANKA: A hidden displacement crisis

IDPs wanting to return faced with difficulties (7 September 2011)

A cyclone hits the return areas in northern Sri Lanka where people who had been displaced by the armed conflict continue to live in make-shift shelters constructed from old tin sheets and tarpaulins several months after their return. (Photo: NRC/October 2012)

More than three years after the end of the 26-year armed conflict between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), nearly 470,000 people displaced during its various stages have returned to their home areas. This does not mean, however, that there is no internal displacement in the country any more. As of the end of September 2012, more than 115,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) were still living in camps, with host communities or in transit sites, or had been relocated, often against their will, to areas other than their places of origin. 

Among those registered as having returned, many have not been able to achieve a durable solution but continue to face difficulties in accessing basic necessities such as shelter, food, water and sanitation, in rebuilding their livelihoods, and in exercising their civil rights. De-mining operations are still ongoing in livelihood areas. Unresolved land issues have been a major obstacle to durable solutions for IDPs and IDP returnees.(...)

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^{31 October 2012}