In the wake of the renewed armed conflict between Sri Lankan forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the influx of Eelam Tamil refugees into India is on the increase. Between 12th January-7th July 2006, 1,363 families, comprising 4,343 refugees, landed in Rameswaram. The data supplied by the Tamil Nadu Government, 31.01.2005, shows that there are 14,031 families overall living in 103 refugee camps spread across the state and thus a total of 58,000 refugees in the camps. If the current figures are included the complete count may be 58,000 refugees, with an approximate average of 50 a day arriving in the coastal areas around Rameswaram.
Given these conditions, some of the most prominent of the leading activists belonging to Human Rights organizations in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry have organized a fact finding committee which, after obtaining permission, visited the Mandapam refugee camp in Rameswaram on 8th July 2006 and subsequently other camps as indicated below:
Refugee Camps:
1.Keezhputhupattu, (Villupuram District)
2.Peria Sevalai ”
3.Thiruvadhavur (Madurai District)
4.Kullanchavady (Cuddalore District)
5.Virudhachalam ”
6.Pavalathanur (Salem District)
7.Kurukapatti ”
8.Athikaattanur ”
9.Paramathi Vellore ”
10.Karur
11.Bhavani Sagar (Erode District)
12.Anacut ”
Committee Members:
1. P. Rathinam, Senior Advocate, Lawyers for Social Justice, Chennai.
2. G. Sugumaran, Federation for People’s Rights, Puducherry.
3. A.Marx, Professor, People’s Union for Human Rights (PUHR).
4. S. Balamurugan, General Secretary, P.U.C.L., Tamil Nadu.
5. S. Kochadai, Professor, P.U.C.L., Sivagangai.
6. Kana. Kurunchi, Professor, P.U.C.L., Erode.
7. Damayandhi, Advocate, Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL).
8. Kesavan, Advocate, Centre for Protection of Civil Liberties (CPCL).
9. Bhagatsingh, Advocate, Lawyers for Social Justice, Madurai.
10.Robert, Advocate, Madurai.
11.Megavannan, Writer, People’s Union for Human Rights, (PUHR).
12.M. Muthukannu,Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF),Puducherry Chapter.
13.M. Ilango, Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, Puducherry.
14.Veeramohan, Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, Puducherry.
15.Ira. Murugappan, Federation for People’s Rights, Tindivanam.
16.G. Paventhan, Advocate, Forum for Advocates of Tamildesam.
17.S. Sankaralingam, Professor, P.U.C.L. Madurai.
18.S. Shanmuganathan, P.U.C.L., Sivagangai.
19.H. Subramanian, P.U.C.L., Sivagangai.
Conditions in the Refugee Camps:
All refugees landing on the shores of Rameswaram are initially taken to the Mandapam Refugee Camp which serves as a transit camp but, when we visited the camp, apart from the 4,343 refugees who arrived after January 2006, we found 220 families, comprising 756 refugees who have already been living there for more than a decade. Upon first arriving at Arichalmunai, they paid Sri Lankan rupees 1000/- to a private carrier who took them by van to Mughandharayar Chatiram, 9 kms from the landing point. The Department of Intelligence were found to be carrying out investigations there.
As well as at Arichalmunai, refugees are landing at Pampan and people from Talaimannar, Pesalai, Kilinochi and other places in Sri Lanka continue to pour in, the majority of them Christian fisher people on the day we visited; amongst them too was the family of a nurse employed by the government and the family of a driver. Fishing has completely ceased due to the armed conflict. The lives of the young men and the modesty of women are at constant risk.
These refugees hid in the forest of Mannar for three days in a state of fear and paid Rs 700-1000 to the boat owners. They say that 10,000 people are sheltering in the forest prior to crossing to safety, a crossing fraught with danger from the Sri Lankan Navy and the L.T.T.E.
The refugees are subject to checks, first by the Indian Navy followed by a Special Branch interrogation at Mugandharayar Chatiram; the Danushkodi police also investigate and register the refugees. In the evening they are taken to the Mandapam camp, their catering needs being met by N.G.Os operating locally.
Young men arriving at the Mandapam camp are initially put into quarantine under conditions worse than those of a prison cell. When we visited we saw 39 male refugees lodged in a 20’x20’ space with only two toilets between them. Mohanraj from Kilinochi, aged 27 had then been there since 17th June 2006 and another detainee, Murugaiyan, from Mannar, aged 42, from 27th June 2006.
Food is brought into the camp from outside at a cost of Rs 35 per day per head.
Those suspected of having links with the movement are referred to Special camps where, as the officer informed us, a suspected person may be detained in quarantine for up to 30 days as per the stipulation of the Government of India.
The problems encountered by refugees in Mandapam and in other places are similar: the houses allotted to them are 10’x10’ and not fit to be lived in. They were built at the end of the 1980s and no renovation has been done since then. Most are covered with Mangalore tiles and tar light-roofing. In Pavalathanur, Kurukapatti (Salem District) camps there are two such types of roof house, popularly known as “ottu camp” (tiled roof camp) and “attai camp” (tar light-roof camp). During the day it is impossible to stay in these hovels due to the scorching heat whereas in the rainy season the water pours through the damaged roofs and the houses become pools of water.
Even though these houses were constructed, and are provided, by the government they are not available to all. For example, in Pavalathanur camp there are 123 families, that is: 428 refugees but only 60 houses have been allotted. Refugees who have been living there for more than 10 years set up separate families after marriage, making their own arrangements for building a dwelling place but, as we found out at the Athikattanur camp, even for this officers have to be bribed. Toilet facilities are inadequate in all camps and so is the provision of water. Men and women in the camps have to walk long distances to relieve themselves and this is particularly difficult for women there being nothing in Sri Lankan culture to help them to accustom themselves to such conditions. They are teased and insulted when on their way to these distant areas and local landowners throw things at them. The Mandapam camp is in a forest area so refugees are also in danger from snakes. Mrs. Selvanayaki, aged 64 has been fasting for many days in protest against these conditions.
Another sore point is the lack of bathroom facilities, which means that women as well as men have to wash at a communal well. Drinking water is scarce in all the camps and in the Virudhachalam Refugee Camp there is only one tap and no sump. Drinking water is provided for the minimum amount of time once in the morning and once in the evening. Male members of families go a few kms. on bicycles to fetch drinking water in small quantities. The wells in the Mandapam camp need to be de-silted and cleaned.
As for electricity, there is one-bulb service in all the camps from 6pm to 6am only and there is no electricity for the thatched kitchen partition and raised mud platform for visitors that have been set up by the refugees. Part of the Kullanchavady camp has no electricity so it has to be taken illicitly from overhead lines. In Bhavanisagar camp there are houses that have had no electricity at all for 16 years. Houses put up later have one-bulb service which has increased the power demand on the single service and, as a result, the cost of electricity is high.
Though the refugees in the camps have been registered and were issued with refugee identity cards immediately upon arrival, there are unregistered people living in most of the camps. In Keezhputhupattu camp, 100 families consisting of 949 individuals live without any registration. The government does not provide relief or facilities for these people. Rather, if the, usually unregistered, children of registered refugees marry outside the camp their “Refugee Identity Card” is cancelled, for example at Bhavanisagar camp. There is no garbage collection arrangement and scavenging work is not undertaken at the camps so the refugees themselves are constrained to carry out this work. Medical facilities are not available in most of the camps. There are a few N.G.Os who, with practitioners, provide medicines. Hospital beds are available in the Mandapam camp but their number has not increased in the last 15 years; the hospital also serves as a peripheral facility for the nearby villages.
Homes for children inside the camp are run by N.G.Os. The nutritional diet supplement that was being given to children has now been cut off. There are no restrictions on students from the camps being admitted into neighbouring schools and colleges but no fee concession is available to the refugees. N.G.Os give financial assistance to students where possible but this is nothing like sufficient. The 2% higher education reservation provided for the wards of refugees was cancelled by the previous Tamil Nadu government. Mrs. Shakuntala Devi, a refugee living in Keezhputhupattu camp, stated that her daughter, Ushanandini, with a total of 807 marks in her Higher Secondary Exam, applied for B.Sc., Nursing but was refused admission; she added that her husband had been incarcerated in a “Special Camp” for 16 years; he was released in 2005 as a result of judicial intervention and returned to Sri Lanka.
The monthly dole paid by the government to the registered refugees is not enough: the male head of the family receives Rs.200 and each individual over 12 years, Rs. 144; the first child under 12 years receives Rs. 90 and the next Rs.45. Essential commodities such as rice, kerosene and sugar, are distributed by fair price shops once a month. Adult members of families receive 12 kgs and children 6 kgs of rice at the subsidized rate of 0.57 paise per kg. Each cardholder gets 5 litres of kerosene and a ration of sugar at fair-price-shop rates. Cooking vessels, distributed once every two years, are not sufficient. The Tamil Eelam refugees, their basic needs unfulfilled and their living conditions woefully inadequate, simply huddle in the camps.
Women in the camps organize self-help groups but the government does not recognize them nor provide any active support and banks even refuse to open accounts in the names of such groups.
The refugees are supposed to pay for their rations and meet their domestic needs out of their monthly financial allowance, which is not possible. They are forced to take menial jobs such as construction work, carpentry, shop work, painting and etc. and then have no protection in the work place. The case of Mrs. Kamalendhravathi from Jaffna, aged 43, is an example: her husband, Mr. Kannadassan, 44, died of electrocution while working as a construction helper at Ramanathapuram. The family received no compensation and the authrorities at the camp were not in possession of any details of the accident. Similarly, in the Paramathi camp, Mr. Chandrakumar, and Mr. Kathirkamathambi, both 36, severely injured their spinal cords when trees fell on them during their work and are now paralysed and bedridden.
We received complaints from the refugees that the rations in some camps were underweight and of poor quality.
Most of the close relatives of the refugees are understood to have been accommodated in other camps and hence there have been requests for transfers. On the day of our visit to Mandapam Camp 1600 transfer orders were stated and issued.
In Karur camp, there are 40 refugee families who have been given shelter in a rice godown. They use gunny sacks, rags and worn out saris as partitions. They have been living there like that since 1990.
There are no properly laid out streets in the camps, nor any street lighting.
A few thatched sheds have been put up in some camps in the name of “Reading Rooms”. In the “Home for Children” there are no recreational facilities such as toys or games.
As regards clothing: lungi, banian and sari (the minimum clothes requirement) are supplied once a year and utensils once every two years.
Recommendations:
1. All inmates in the refugee camps must be registered and issued with identity cards. Children born here must be granted Indian citizenship if their parents are willing or, otherwise, registered as refugees and issued with identity cards.
2. Registered refugees who have lived here for more than a decade and those who have married Indian citizens should be accorded Indian citizenship if they so choose.
3. The monthly dole is not sufficient to meet basic needs. Rs 35/- per day is spent on food for those segregated and kept in quarantine. This amount should be increased to Rs. 1050/- (35×30=1050) per month and given to inmates as dole. There should be no discrimination based on whether someone is head of the family, male, female. Children under 12 should receive Rs.600/- and, further, there should be no discrimination regarding first and second children etc.
4. 12 kgs of rice at the subsidized rate of 0.57 paise per kg. is laudable but the quality should be ensured and monitored by the authorities.
5. Clothes should be provided twice a year rather than once and utensils once a year instead of once every two years.
6. The ration of items such as kerosene, rice and etc. should be increased with 10 litres of kerosene being supplied per month. All ration items supplied to BPL families of Indian citizens should be supplied to the refugees as well.
7. Promises made to the electorate during elections, that the assembly would provide free gas, television sets etc., should, when implemented, be extended to the refugees.
8. The houses in the camp have not been repaired or maintained for the last 16 years. They need to be renovated on an emergency basis, especially the roofs which must be replaced. Construction of permanent housing should be undertaken and those now sheltered in go-downs allotted separate houses in the camps.
9. Camps need to be integrated with the local Panchayat/Municipality/Corporation. Drinking water must be provided and the wells inside the camps de-silted and cleaned. Scavenging facilities must be provided.
10. The most immediate task is the construction of sufficient numbers of toilet blocks. Further, the existing toilets must be provided with doors and with water facilities. The septic tanks must be periodically emptied.
11. Priority should be given to the laying out of streets in the camps and the provision of street lighting.
12. 24 hour electricity must be provided for all the houses and every house must have a minimum of three lights and plug point facilities.
13. Medical facilities are in great need of improvement and there should be monthly medical camps. More beds should be provided in the Mandapam camp hospital, which needs to be improved and brought up to date.
14. The Government must undertake the total expense of educating the young people. The reservations that existed under the previous D.M.K. government for higher and professional education should also be extended proportionate to the refugee population. Free textbooks and bus passes should be given too. Educational institutions of quality situated in the vicinity of the camps should be required to adopt a certain number of children and to offer them free education as a social responsibility.
15. “Homes for Children”: “Reading rooms” in the camps should have at least minimal facilities. The supply of nutritious meals to children, now withheld, should also be commenced with new enthusiasm and drive.
16. The government must accord recognition immediately to the self-help groups functioning in the camps and extend them every facility that is available to outside self-help groups. Banks must be prevailed upon to open bank accounts in the names of the SHGs.
17. The government should also arrange employment opportunities for the refugees in the camps and give permission for refugees to go job hunting. It is the Government’s job to see that proper wages are paid to the refugees and the state must guarantee and safeguard the workplace. Proper procedures must be formulated and initiated in this regard in every one of the camps.
18. Women refugees of marriageable age should receive government assistance; regular medical check-ups for pregnant women have to be arranged.
19. The government must encourage the refugees to start small-scale industries and render them assistance with this; the banks must come forward and arrange loans for this purpose.
20. Steps must be taken by the government to save the refugees from falling into the clutches of ruthless moneylenders.
21. Quarantine as it exists now in the camps must be abolished and the refugees treated with proper dignity.
22. The obstacles that are preventing N.G.Os from assisting refugees in the camps must be removed.
23. Proper facilities for transporting the refugees who land at Rameswaram should be arranged by the camps. Required investigations, inquiries and other formalities need to be simplified and carried out expeditiously. The Government must be responsible for providing immediate food and medical care for the refugees as soon as they land on the shores of Rameswaram.
24. When inmates request transfers on reasonable grounds decisions should be positive and bus/train warrants issued.
25. Two of the “Special Camps’ in Tamil Nadu are worse than jails. A “white paper’ must be issued by the Government giving details of detainees and the duration of their detention; this paper should also state whether any of them have been deported against their will to Sri Lanka.
26. The Government must appoint an Inquiry Commission under the chairmanship of a sitting High Court Judge to examine conditions in the camps.
27. The attitude of the Government of India in not signing the 1951 Convention Relating to Refugees, signed by more than a hundred governments of the world, is to be condemned. We urge the government to sign the 1951 and 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees immediately.
28. Even though India has not signed the Protocol on the Status of Refugees, the extent to which the principle of non-refoulment is being put into practice is appreciable. Nevertheless, the practice of keeping refugees in special camps without investigation and without their cases being filed should be discontinued. Refugees belonging to different races, nations and language groups and living in various states should not be discriminated against.
29. The Government of India must formulate a national policy on the condition of refugees. Service minded individuals, N.G.Os, and corporations should adopt the refugee camps and help them in every possible way.
30. Political parties need to focus their activities on the plight of the refugees and initiate efforts to help them achieve their demands and amelioration of their living conditions.
31. As camp inmates are hesitant, even scared, to talk openly about their problems, complaint boxes should be set up in the camps and opened monthly at the level of Deputy Director and complaints disposed conscientiously.
32. In each District, a committee consisting of M.L.As, M.Ps, and Human Rights activists and officers must be constituted to monitor closely the activities of the camps and to pay visits to the camps at least once every three months to receive complaints and firsthand information from the refugees.
Note:
1. The officers at all levels cooperated to the full in helping us to visit Mandapam Refugee Camp. Mr. V.Jayakumar, Deputy Director, Commissionarate of Rehabilitation supplied us with all necessary information. Though the Tahsildar at Paramathivelur, Namakkal District, gave permission, Mr. Dhansekaran, the Revenue Inspector refused us entry into the camp.
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