The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake - Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House of Parliament

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson of Committees, although not directly connected to today’s debate, several Members raised matters regarding the arrest in India of two Sri Lankans—Ramasamy Thecharaja and Thecharaja Pushprani—who had gone to India as refugees due to the war.

¶ 02 First, they went to India and to refugee camps during a time of war. In such a situation, people will not be looking for lawful or unlawful points of entry; they do what they must to save their lives. For over 30 years there have been more than 110 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and even Puducherry, housing Sri Lankan refugees. The exact number is uncertain, but some estimates speak of around 110,000 individuals. About 28,500 of them had no citizenship in either Sri Lanka or India. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, myself, and Hon. Ramalingam Chandrasekeran intervened, visited those camps, and brought a Bill to this Parliament. With the participation of the late Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake, Members across the House—except one—voted to grant Sri Lankan citizenship to 28,500 people who had fled to India due to the war. That is the history.

¶ 03 After the war ended, to my knowledge at least around 6,000 have returned and settled in Sri Lanka. I personally intervened to facilitate land allocations and electricity connections in areas like Kanagapuram and Bharathipuram in Kilinochchi. The first issue we encountered was that returnees were getting arrested. For example, a Sri Lankan, Sinnaiya Sivalokanathan, was arrested at Palaly Airport—this was made a big issue by a defeated MP of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi. The case number was 736/PC/25. I also intervened and informed our then Minister in charge of Immigration and Emigration, Hon. Ananda Wijepala, and that gentleman was released within two days. Such arrests are not good, but that happened. It is not Government policy. We govern through officials, not as a family. Individual officers can err. To portray every such incident as Government policy is either immature or desperate—an attempt to sling mud at the Government. Some extremists in both North and East want to claim that the Government persecutes Tamils for being Tamil. But Sivalokanathan was released within two days, following directions from the Ministry of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs.

¶ 04 Again, in August, on the 6th, two Sri Lankans—Ramasamy Thecharaja and Thecharaja Pushprani—were arrested at Katunayake Airport. They too were Indian refugee camp returnees. They were released on August 8th.

¶ 05 These arrests are made generally under Sections 45(1)(b) and 68 read with Section 34 of the Immigrants and Emigrants Act—very general provisions. Bail has been granted. We regret any inconvenience caused to our returning citizens. If there are legal impediments, they are not unchangeable; they should have been addressed earlier. This is not Government policy. We warmly welcome all Sri Lankan refugees returning from India and will extend maximum support. Hon. Ananda Wijepala, a former Chairman of the Rehabilitation Authority, spent five years in the North, going to every household regardless of affiliation. We have no intention of harassing returnees as a matter of policy, and we regret those incidents.

¶ 06 We do not understand why UNHCR has reportedly used these two incidents to slow facilitation of returns from India. Each person arrested has been bailed. We trust the relevant Ministers will resolve any legal obstacles. Our aim is to provide maximum facilities and protection so they can rebuild their lives here as true citizens. I have also discussed this with the Hon. Minister of Justice. We hope to stop such arrests. We urge all not to give a communal twist to any isolated official mistake. Only two incidents have occurred, and bail has been granted. Claims that Tamils are targeted simply for being Tamil may be useful as propaganda, but we in Parliament should not be that desperate. Let us build one Sri Lanka. Point out our shortcomings fairly, but do not aid a divisive project.

¶ 07 Thank you.