UNHCR helps stranded pregnant IDPs to leave Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 October 2009, 15:28 GMT]
Officials of the UNHCR Monday sent a batch of 124 pregnant IDPs with their relatives to Jaffna. They had been staying in the wedding hall of the Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil from September 29 since the refusal of permission by the Sri Lanka stating that they were not issued with proper clearance by the civil authority.

Vavuniyaa Sivan Koayil administrators told media that UNHCR officials took these IDPs to the SLA checkpoint to Monday morning and sent them to Jaffna by buses.

Meanwhile, another batch of 150, most of them pregnant women with their relatives are given shelter in the Koayil wedding hall after they were released from Menik Farm on Monday to go to their homes in Jaffna, Koayil administrator Mr. T. Navaratnarajah said.

However, seventy five pregnant IDPs with their relatives brought from the Menik Farm and dropped at the Vavuniyaa bus stand on October 3 midnight are still staying in the wedding hall of the Sivan Koayil waiting for the clearance from the civil authority to travel to their homes in Jaffna.