“I don’t like it here in Jaffna; life has been very tough,” says 23-year-old P. Alfred. If given a chance he would “run back” to Tamil Nadu, he says, to complete his B.Com degree.
Alfred’s family left Sri Lanka in 1998 and spent more than a decade in a refugee camp in Mandapam, Rameswaram, before returning in 2011, two years after the island’s war ended.
“I studied in Ramanathapuram. All my friends are there; I don’t know anyone in Jaffna,” he complains. “People here make fun of the way I speak Tamil saying it is too colloquial.” With no way of continuing his B.Com degree in Jaffna, Alfred had little choice but to assist his father, a fisherman in Pasaiyur.
Alfred’s mother has, from the beginning, dreamt of returning to her homeland some day. “The children say I have ruined their lives by opting to come back,” says the 51-year-old who does not want to be named.“You may get all the facilities you need in India, but that is not my home, this is.” Shocked to find her home destroyed completely in the incessant shelling, she knew there was little choice but to start all over again.
“We could have avoided all this. I would have completed my course there and found a job,” says her daughter who studied video editing in Tamil Nadu. “Our eldest brother could not stand it here, so he went back to Rameswaram and works there now.”
The conflicting views held by members of Alfred’s family reflect the dilemmas that thousands who came back from refugee camps in India face every day. Caught between a compelling call to return to their homeland on the one hand and the current realities of the war-torn region on the other, they stand overwhelmed.
‘Struggling to settle’ Refugees in India began returning from 1987 onwards — when the Indian Peace Keeping Force began its operation in Sri Lanka — but some chose to go back to India because of the continuing war and unrest in Sri Lanka. With the end of the war in 2009 signalling a more conducive environment for return, over 9,000 persons returned between 2009 and 2014. As India and Sri Lanka now discuss repatriation of about one lakh Sri Lankan refugees remaining in Tamil Nadu — over 65,000 in camps and the rest outside — families who returned after the war caution those contemplating their big move back.
“ The process of return for refugees can be made smoother if both governments put together a comprehensive package. ”
Those who fled the country during such testing times — right from 1983 — spread themselves largely across 110 camps in Tamil Nadu. While they appreciate the support received in India, life in a refugee camp is not easy, they say. In addition to the pressure of living in cramped spaces, it was a big strain financially, says Vasuki, who returned in 2011.
According to P. Laksala, who, after her return in 2012, has set up a small grocery store by taking a loan, some support from both governments is crucial. “I was the only one in my family to go to India in 2006. My parents sent me because the LTTE was forcibly recruiting teenagers at that time. I escaped, but they took my sister later. She lost vision in one of her eyes during the war,” says the schoolgirl-looking 27-year-old mother of two. Determined to put behind the trauma of the war, she works hard all day, babysitting, managing her shop, and weaving mats for an additional income.
Immediate challenge Finding some land or a home to live in is an immediate challenge facing returnees. “We have no money to complete our roof,” says Kadirgaman Dayaparanathan, pointing to the bare concrete walls that stand abandoned beside his thatch-roofed hut in the small town of Valalai, Jaffna Peninsula. Box-like openings on the walls await window panels.
A beneficiary of the Indian Housing Scheme (India is helping build 50,000 homes for families displaced by the war), Dayaparanathan has already borrowed Rs.3 lakh (approximately Rs. 1,40,000 in Indian rupees) for the house. “The mason who charged Rs.1,000 earlier charges Rs.1,300 now. As per the Indian scheme, we get a total of Rs.5.5 lakh for building a home, but with the rising costs we cannot finish building our homes within that sum,” he says, adding that he regrets having decided to come back from India.
Living off his son’s income, the family is trying hard to piece their lives together after over two decades of dislocation to a Virudhunagar camp from 1990.
Many people, like Dayaparanathan’s neighbour Sinnathurai Selvarathinam, are still unable to return to their land usurped by the Sri Lankan army for its High Security Zone. “When people like him who stayed here during the war are unable go back to their own land, what can those coming back after many years hope for?” Dayaparanathan says.
For those who were born in India, like Dayaparanathan’s daughter Danukiya, registering their birth in Sri Lanka and obtaining relevant documents is a tedious process. “The Sri Lankan government does not accept my Indian birth certificate. I was asked to pay Rs.25,000 to get citizenship here,” says the 24-year-old, angry about being unable to pursue the diploma course she started at Annamalai University in India. “People my age are struggling to find jobs here.”
Converting a diploma certificate obtained in India to a document relevant here also comes with a cost — Rs.37,000 — according to S. Sooriyakumary, president of the Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation Ceylon, which works with refugees in India and returnees in Sri Lanka. “Considering the situation of those returning after decades, the government could be more sympathetic and charge nominally for such paper work,” she says.
The process of return can be made smoother and more viable if both governments put together a comprehensive package. “Such an arrangement is necessary for families to relocate, get documents including their national identity cards and citizenship certificates, and most importantly, find sustainable livelihood,” she adds.
In addition to the efforts of Colombo and New Delhi, the process warrants active involvement of the Northern Provincial Council administration which, according to returnees, has not taken much initiative so far.
“It is as if everyone has abandoned us. We are quite helpless,” says Danukiya. “Those who are considering getting back should think not once, but twice.”
meera.srinivasan@thehindu.co.in
