All 16 ethnic Tamils, including nine children who fled their homes in northern Sri Lanka due to the acute shortage of food and essential items there, have been lodged at the Rehabilitation Camp in Mandapam near Rameswaram by the Tamil Nadu government.
The Tamils had taken two boats from Mannar in the north on Monday and reached Rameswaram a day later. Initially, a local court in Rameswaram had ordered the remand of six persons but the state government has now decided to lodge all of them in the Mandapam camp on “humanitarian grounds.”
“We have lodged the 16 Sri Lankan Tamils in Mandapam camp and we are providing all necessary help to them. Medical help is also being provided to those who need it. We will ensure that they are taken good care of till the Union Government takes a decision (on their entry),” K S Masthan, Minister of Minorities Welfare, Non Resident Tamils Welfare, and Refugees, told DH.
The government rushed Jacintha Lazarus, Commissioner of Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non-Resident Tamils, to Rameswaram to assess the situation arising out of ethnic Tamils flocking to the island to escape sufferings due to the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
Masthan said the state government is extending assistance to them on “humanitarian grounds” as other issues regarding them will have to be handled by the Union Government. The 16 Sri Lankan nationals who have been lodged at the Mandapam camp include seven adults and nine children, he added.
Officials said the state government has very “limited role” in the issue as people who flee their countries and come to India are handled by the Union Government. “Since these people did not have a visa or any other travel document, they will be handled by the Union Government under relevant laws. Our job is just to take care of their immediate needs,” a government official said.
The minister also referred to Chief Minister M K Stalin’s statement in the assembly on Thursday that the state government was in touch with the Union Government on how to handle the issue legally.
“I have been watching the news of Tamils (in Sri Lanka) coming to Tamil Nadu recently. I had instructed my officials yesterday (Wednesday) to get in touch with union ministries concerned and officials, as well, on how to handle this issue legally,” Stalin had said.
The latest development has brought back the memories of thousands of Sri Lankan nationals from the Tamil-dominated northern region fleeing the island in the 1980s to Rameswaram fearing bullets and death due to the civil war between the Sri Lankan Army and the now-defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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