Sri Lankan state paper highlights 'return' of Tamil refugees from India

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 October 2010, 17:32 GMT]
67 refugees who fled to India during the war, have returned on October 21st, 2010, the state owned Dinamina newspaper said Sunday in a front page article. Meanwhile, Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu say they find themselves in a desperate situation either to face a long term genocide in the island by returning to the island to safeguard their lands from the Sinhala Army of colonisation. Informed media circles in Colombo said New Delhi was negotiating with Colombo on returning Tamil refugees.

New Delhi had asked Colombo to resume ferry service to enable a smooth return. However, Sri Lankan Defence Secretary was insisting on deploying ships specifically for the purpose of sending refugees in batches, informed circles in Colombo said.

Most of the returnees were children and women and belong to 21 families, Dinamina said. The refugees were financially assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which provided the air tickets and other facilities for their repatriation, according to Dinamina.