More than 2,000 refugees have reached Ramanathapuram since January
Dire Straits - I
The first of a three-part series on the influx of Sri Lankan refugees across the Palk Straits
RAMANATHAPURAM: As the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka threatens to intensify into another war, Tamil Nadu is feeling the heat.
Since violence resumed between the Sri Lankan forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in January, 2,067 refugees from the island nation have crossed the Palk Straits and rushed to the Ramanathapuram coast in Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu has already accommodated more than 56,000 refugees in 103 camps across the state since the civil war broke out in Sri Lanka in 1983.
Of the more than 500 refugees taken into the Mandapam camp in Ramanathapuram in the last ten days, 234 arrived on a single day — May 23— a day after a senior LTTE commander was killed by a sniper near Vavunatheevu . DNA has learnt that hundreds of families in Trincomalee, Mannar and Batticaloa in Sri Lanka are waiting to be ferried across to Indian shores.
The Mandapam camp with 2,500 refugees has room for 10,000 people. So there is no immediate shortage of space, but if thousands of families decide to take refuge in Tamil Nadu, the administration may have a problem.
“We are prepared,” Ramanathapuram collector KS Muthuswaamy told DNA. The district administration is sending daily reports on the influx to the state and central governments. The refugees get cooked food for the first couple of days and later rice and other rations, besides a fortnightly allowance of Rs200 per family.
The police too are taking no chances with the security aspect. The ‘Q’ branch of the state police is entrusted with the job of screening the refugees. “There is a danger of Tamil militants landing here in the guise of refugees. Already three such persons have been identified and shifted to the special camp in Chengalpet,” a police officer said.
For the refugees, it is a one-way ticket to get away from the jaws of death. Fishermen sell off their boats and nets for a pittance to pay the ferryman up to Rs10,000 per head to be dropped somewhere near the Indian shores. The one-hour journey is fraught with danger. Ten refugees had drowned on May 20 when a boat carrying 19 of them capsized off the Indian coast.
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