COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
transit, return and resettlement areas. The Committee is further concern about the
absence of accurate data on children who have died as a result of the conflict and the
difficulties of families to obtain death certificates.‖
21.25 On 1 August 2011 Irin 419 reported that:
―More than two years after Sri Lanka's decades-long conflict officially ended, the
whereabouts of 630 children are unknown, according to a government database.
―Most went missing during the final phase of the war that ended on 18 May 2009, when
government forces declared victory over the now defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983.
―According to reports cited by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), 64 percent of those
missing were recruited by the LTTE while 30 percent were last seen behind government
lines.
―In December 2009, Charles [Piencia Charles, the most senior government official in the
Vavuniya District], set up the Family Tracing Unit within the Vavuniya Divisional
Secretariat.
―To date, more than 600 children have been reunited with their parents through the unit,
with 13 cases pending and under verification.
―Another 34 names given by parents have been matched with those on the database,
with officers now trying to locate the children.
―Recently the number of people coming to Charles for help in finding their children has
decreased. However, tracing those still on the list will take time.‖
21.26 On 29 August 2011 BBC Sinhala 420 reported:
―Almost 600 children out of 1800 have been reunited with their families by UNICEF with
the coordination of several organizations, Vavuniya Government Agent (GA) PSM
Charles told BBC Tamil service.
―Ms Charles also said that with the help of UNICEF, actions are underway to find out
whereabouts of those missing children as she received tearful pleas from more than
1000 parents in the region.‖
21.27 Additional information is available from the UN Report of the Secretary-General on
children and armed conflict in Sri Lanka
21.28 Specific information on the return to Sri Lanka of families with children; unaccompanied
and separated children reintegration support post return and monitoring mechanisms for
children is available from the European Commission, Comparative Study on Practices in
the Field of Return of Minors, December 2011 (see section 5.6 on Sri Lanka).
419 Irin, Sri Lanka, Over 600 war children still missing, 1 August 2011
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93381 date accessed 21 January 2012
420 BBC Sinhala, 1000 children 'still missing' since war, 29 August 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/08/110829_children_missing.shtml date accessed 21
January 2012
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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