Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees in India

Abstract

A poet once described Sri Lanka as a tear dropped from the Indian face. Today the land, awash with unending violence, epitomizes this description. The ravaged island and its link to India remains unbrokenby the presence of approximately 200,000 Sri Lankan refugees in India. The disaimination and violence by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamils throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s form the backdrop to this refugee situation. As the crisis deepened, small numbers of Sri Lankan Tamil educated elite migrated. The majority went to the developed West, the rest to neighbouring India. The expatriate community swelled and would in time provide sustenance to the movement. In 1983, the Sinhaleseviolence against the Tamils and Tamil insurgency resulted in the displacement of all communities in the north and the east. These induded the Tamils, Tamil-speaking MuslimsandSinhalese settledin the east. India, for security reasons, could not overlooksuch political developments. Its fears were not unfounded, for the next step was the exodus+mssing the narrow Palk Straits-into India. All the refugees who came to India in 1983 took refuge in the state of Tamil Nadu, with a population of 55,638,318 (1991 provisional census). By the early part of 1993, there were an estimated 200,000 Sri Lankan Tamils. There is no exad number available as many do not register, despite local government orders. It is easy to remain undetected with many refugees living outside the camps.