More Tamil refugees in India return to Jaffna

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 July 2003, 16:49 GMT]
Twenty-one more Sri Lankan Tamil refugees Sunday early morning arrived in Nedunthivu islet in Jaffna district from South India by boats. They are natives of Jaffna district and fled to South India due to military operation by Sri Lankan security forces, sources said.



Earlier on Friday thirteen Sri Lankan Tamil refugees returned to Nedunthivu in an Indian trawler. All of them were found to be residents of Mannar district and were sent to Mannar through A 9 highway by rehabilitation officials. They will be resettled in their villages, Jaffna district secretariat sources said.

The refugees arrived Sunday early morning are now kept at Nedunthivu divisional office and they will be allowed to go back to their own villages Monday after being registered at the rehabilitation branch in the Jaffna district secretariat, sources said.

More Sri Lankan Tamil refugees staying in Tamilnadu welfare centres in South India are getting ready to return to Jaffna district in the coming days, some of the returnees said, according to humanitarian agencies in Jaffna.

Several Tamil refugees have already informed their Indian camp officials their intention to return to Jaffna on their own if the authorities failed to send them back, sources said.