COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
The Senior Government Official for Mullaitivu said that the population of Mullaitivu needed to
start working again, adding that 80% of them worked in agriculture, 10% in fishing and 10% in
commerce. Mullaitivu had suffered worse than most areas in that reconstruction following the
tsunami had not been completed because of the war. The government of Sri Lanka had drawn
up a programme to improve electricity and water supply, and to improve the road infrastructure.
Water was a particular problem as it was pumped from underground wells which would fail in
the dry season. There were proposals to pump line water. The World Bank had funded the
construction of 12,500 houses. This had been necessary because when the population
abandoned their homes in order to flee the fighting, they took with them roofs, windows, doors
etc. to provide shelter. She added that a problem they had was the large herds of stray cattle
wandering across the district, comprising of domestic and farm animals that had joined together
and reproduced in large numbers.
The Senior Government Official for Vavuniya told us that the population of Menik Farm IDP
camp was just above 45,000. She was hopeful that all of them would be returned to their home
districts by 1 st October 2010. She referred to the former LTTE surrendees who had been held in
camps within her district. She said that the vulnerable, the disabled, college students, mothers
of young children and pregnant women had been released, along with 400 others who had been
sent to Colombo to work in garment factories.
The High Commission team were escorted through Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) in Mullaitivu
district. Demining has not yet commenced and the town was clearly the site of a fierce battle
towards the end of the conflict. It appeared that not one building had escaped serious damage,
including the hospital which had shell holes in the roof. The town was deserted except for the
occasional soldier in an observation post, and herds of cattle meandering through the
devastation of blown up buildings and vehicles.
Menik Farm
The High Commission team visited Menik Farm in Vavuniya District. This had been the largest
IDP camp in the country and at the height of the humanitarian crisis had been home to over
300,000 people within 5 separate zones. We met with the team of military and civilian staff who
were managing the camp. They explained the huge logistical challenge to process each person
in the camp in order to identify where their homes were and if it was safe for them to return. We
were told that there were currently 45,900 persons in the camp, but this number was reducing
every day. We were taken around the camp and allowed to speak to some of the families. Some
of them had been in Menik Farm for 16 months. The tents they were living in were becoming
tatty and UNHCR had to strengthen and waterproof them by providing more tarpaulin sheets.
Most of the families we spoke to just wanted to know when they would be allowed to return
home. Many told us that they were from Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK) in Mullaitivu District. The
army commander told them that PTK was still to be de-mined, but the plan was for them to be
moved from their tents to another zone with semi-permanent housing until they were allowed to
return.
UNHCR explained that a lot of people in the camp were allowed to travel by bus into Vavuniya.
Businesses had grown up within the camp and one family told me that apart from growing their
own vegetables next their tent they had a sewing machine and made money by making school
uniforms. When the families were told that were being released, they were allowed to pack up
all of their belongings, including the tents and sheeting, and take them with them. Supervised by
the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), lorries would take them from the gates of the
camp to their homes. We were told that some people were placed in transit camps if the
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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