A cross-section of refugees from different countries such as Sri Lanka, Iraq, Sudan and Myanmar, on Saturday took out a rally in Chennai, where they live, to highlight issues concerning the community of refugees.
Starting from Gandhinagar Club in Adyar, the participants pedalled their way to Besant Nagar and returned to the starting point. They included diplomats, government officials, academicians, students and staff of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) here, which organised the rally in connection with the World Refugee Day (June 20).
Going by UNHCR data, the population of refugees, also called people of concern, is about 2.08 lakh in India. This figure includes Sri Lankan Tamil refugees (62,712) supported by the Union and State governments and excludes those living outside camps in Tamil Nadu. There are 36,890 non-camp refugees in the State. Besides, Tamil Nadu has 94 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar; nine from Iraq; seven from Sudan; three from Somalia and one from South Sudan.
During 2017, the UNHCR’s local office facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 594 Sri Lankan Tamils.
Support in city
At a meeting held after the rally, Chief Mission of UNHCR India Yasuko Shimizu said that despite the growth in the anti-refugee rhetoric in many parts of the world, the “hope and resilience” of those forced to flee their homes were matched with “support and assistance” across the world from peoples, organisations and governments. She lauded the role being played by the Union and Tamil Nadu governments for the welfare of refugees.
Aruna D, a civil engineering graduate, who is planning to go back to Uyilankulam in Mannar district of Northern Province, Sri Lanka, expressed her gratitude to the State government for the educational opportunities she got.
Ahamad Nazzar of Iraq, who is doing his PhD in bio-technology at the Anna University, recounted how his eight-year-old son told him that “wherever we go, we should come back to Chennai as this is our home town”.
