The Sri Lankan Refugee Crimes and Crisis: Experience and Lessons Learnt from South India

Abstract

Sharing porous borders with its neighbours, India has played a regular host to refugees from Nepal, Burma, Tibet, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. According to UNHCR, as of 2014, there are more than 200,000 refugees living in India. Notwithstanding the fact that India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its additional 1967 Protocol, its open-door policy to refugees has had adverse political and socio-economic repercussions. This article3 analyses the experience of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu with the Sri Lankan refugees from the first influx in 1983 up to 2000, when the refugees began returning to their homeland. The researchers identify the pull factors for the refugee influx and push factors that led to their return and in the process put together crucial learning that can be of significance to States dealing with the problem of refugees.