COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
another 50,000 as temporary residents. Most of the Tamils live within Colombo City
limits but other sizeable numbers live south of the city in the suburbs of Dehiwala and
Mount Lavinia. He added that another 100,000 Tamils reside in Wattala and a further
50,000 reside further south in Kalutara. This would estimate up to 500,000 living in
Colombo and its immediate environs. Clearly these figures would be with regard to
Colombo District, and based on the 2008 estimated figure above, would indicate that
between 16 – 20% of the total population of the Colombo district are Tamil.‖
18.09 The Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) report No war, no peace: the denial of
minority rights and justice in Sri Lanka 304 , released on 19 January 2011 observed:
―Tamil is the ‗mother tongue‘ of Tamils and Muslims (excluding Malays) and is spoken
by one in four Sri Lankans. The north and east is the only contiguous region of the
island where Tamil is widely used; the Nuwara Eliya district in the central highlands is
the only other part of the country where Tamil-speakers comprise the majority of the
local population. There are concentrations of Tamil-speakers in urban centres such as
Colombo (where they comprise 56 per cent of all residents within municipal limits) and
Kandy, and in far-flung districts such as Badulla, Puttalam, Kalutara, Kegalle, Matale
and Ratnapura, where they comprise around 20 per cent of the population.
―Over 20 years since constitutional recognition of Tamil as an official language, Tamilspeakers
continue to experience discrimination in their access to public services and
institutions. Particularly outside of the north and east, the government officers with
whom Tamil-speakers interact are largely mono-lingual Sinhala-speakers.‖
18.10 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2010 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report -
Section VII: Human Rights in Countries of Concern 305 , release on 31 March 2011 noted
that:
―Throughout the conflict, minorities suffered disproportionately – including at the hands
of the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The political rights of minorities, a
key driver of the conflict, continued to be restricted in 2010. Tamil representatives
continued to report discrimination from the government and security forces. Tamil
civilians in Colombo were asked to register their presence with their local police station
in July, and throughout 2010 arrests under the Emergency Regulations and Prevention
of Terrorism Act primarily affected Tamils.‖
18.11 Jane‘s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka 306 , accessed on
3 February 2012:
304 Minority Rights Group International (MRGI), No war, no peace: the denial of minority rights and
justice in Sri Lanka, released on 19 January 2011 http://www.minorityrights.org/10458/reports/no-warno-peace-the-denial-of-minority-rights-and-justice-in-sri-lanka.html
date accessed 20 May 2011, p26
305 Human Rights and Democracy: The 2010 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Report - Section VII:
Human Rights in Countries of Concern, released on 31 March 2011
http://centralcontent.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/human-rights-reports/accessible-hrd-report-2010 date
accessed 24 May 2011
306 Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka,
http://sentinel.janes.com/docs/sentinel/SASS_country.jsp?Prod_Name=SASS&Sent_Country=Sri%20La
nka& [subscription only] date accessed 3 February 2012, Internal Affairs, 17 January 2012, Post-
Independence ethnic tension
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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