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UNHCR steps up emergency response in Sri Lanka as new displacement tops 63,000

News Stories, 17 April 2009

© UNHCR/G. Amarasinghe
A group of internally displaced people in Sri Lanka. UNHCR has stepped up its emergency response in the north of the country.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, April 17 (UNHCR) – UNHCR has stepped up its emergency response in the north of Sri Lanka, where more than 63,000 people have so far been displaced by heavy fighting between the military and the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE).

The displaced people fleeing the conflict zone in the north-eastern coastal pocket are being accommodated at several transit and internal displacement sites in the districts of Vavuniya, Jaffna and Mannar.

UNHCR – together with the government and other partners – is responding with massive shelter support and regular distribution of non-food aid items while carrying out protection monitoring. The aid distributions have so far been focused on Vavuniya, where a majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs) are being accommodated.

The agency has so far distributed some 36,000 plastic mats, over 22,000 bed sheets, 32,000 mosquito nets, more than 46,000 articles of clothing, 9,000 kitchen sets and thousands of hygiene kits.

The construction of shelter units by UNHCR's partners at government-designated sites is also progressing as planned. Despite formidable challenges, work on one site in Vavuniya with a capacity of up to 27,000 people is scheduled to be completed by Monday. The agency has asked the government to provide more land, including in the district of Mannar, to help alleviate overcrowding at current sites and to relieve pressure on services in Vavuniya.

"UNHCR welcomes positive steps by the government to address several protection concerns at the sites in Vavuniya," agency spokesman Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva on Friday. "Short visits by friends and relatives to the sites are now allowed. UNHCR monitored the first round of visits on Monday [April 13]."

He added that telephone, telegramme and mail services are now operating in almost all sites in the district. Meanwhile, Redmond said, "approximately 1,800 IDPs with special needs, particularly the elderly, have been released from the sites, and some 1,345 separated families have so far been reunited, according to the government."

While commending these initiatives, Redmond said UNHCR was also urging the government to accelerate progress on other outstanding protection concerns, including maintaining the civilian character of the IDP sites and the separation of ex-combatants from the civilian population; expediting the screening process in IDP camps; and subsequently allowing freedom of movement. UNHCR has made a number of concrete suggestions on how best to proceed and will continue to work closely with the government to ensure that minimum international standards are met at all sites, he said.

The spokesman said UNHCR believed the ultimate objective of the government should be the safe and voluntary return of the displaced to their villages of origin by removing obstacles to return.

"Chief among them is the challenging task of demining," Redmond said. "We urge the international community to provide the government with technical and financial support to carry out mine clearance in areas of return."

He said UNHCR remains deeply concerned about the plight of the civilian population still trapped inside the conflict zone. "Those fleeing into government-controlled areas provide similar accounts of the dire humanitarian conditions prevalent inside the area," the spokesman noted. "The situation has worsened due to the ongoing heavy rains and winds, with most families living in flooded areas under damaged tarpaulin tents and beneath trees."

The refugee agency also called on the LTTE to immediately allow people caught in the conflict zone to move to areas where they feel safe.

"We also urge both parties to the conflict to adhere to international humanitarian law and ensure that the safety of the innocent civilian population is the top priority," Redmond said.

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Sri Lanka: IDPs and Returnees

During Sri Lanka's 20-year civil war more than 1 million people were uprooted from their homes or forced to flee, often repeatedly. Many found shelter in UNHCR-supported Open Relief Centers, in government welfare centers or with relatives and friends.

In February 2002, the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) signed a cease-fire accord and began a series of talks aimed at negotiating a lasting peace. By late 2003, more than 300,000 internally displaced persons had returned to their often destroyed towns and villages.

In the midst of these returns, UNHCR provided physical and legal protection to war affected civilians – along with financing a range of special projects to provide new temporary shelter, health and sanitation facilities, various community services, and quick and cheap income generation projects.

Sri Lanka: IDPs and Returnees

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Shortly after the tsunami hit Sri Lanka, killing over 30,000 people and displacing nearly 800,000, UNHCR was asked to take a lead role in providing transitional shelter – bridging the gap between emergency tents and the construction of permanent homes. The refugee agency is not normally involved in natural disasters, but lent its support to the effort because of the scale of the devastation and because many of the tsunami-affected people were also displaced by the conflict.

Since the 26 December 2004 tsunami, UNHCR has helped in the coordination and construction of over 55,000 transitional shelters and has directly constructed, through its partners, 4,500 shelters in Jaffna in the north, and Ampara District in the east. These efforts are helping some 20,000 people rebuild their lives.

On 15 November, 2005, UNHCR completed its post-tsunami shelter role and formally handed over responsibility for the shelter sector to the Sri Lankan government. Now, UNHCR is returning its full focus to its pre-tsunami work of providing assistance to people internally displaced by the conflict, and refugees repatriating from India.

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In an unprecedented response to a natural disaster, the U.N. refugee agency – whose mandate is to protect refugees fleeing violence and persecution – has kicked off a six-month, multi-million dollar emergency relief operation to aid tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Somalia. UNHCR has worked in Sri Lanka for nearly 20 years and has the largest operational presence in the country with seven offices, 113 staff and a strong network of partnerships in place. The day of the tsunami, UNHCR opened up its warehouses in the island nation and began distributing existing stockpiles – including plastic sheeting, cooking sets and clothing for 100,000 people.

UNHCR estimates that some 889,000 people are now displaced in Sri Lanka, including many who were already displaced by the long-running conflict in the north. Prior to the tsunami, UNHCR assisted 390,000 people uprooted by the war. UNHCR is now expanding its logistical and warehouse capacity throughout the island to facilitate delivery of relief items to the needy populations, including in the war-affected area. The refugee agency is currently distributing relief items and funding mobile health clinics to assist the injured and sick.

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