Lankan citizenship for Tamil refugees

About 28,500 Tamils of Indian-origin now living in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu will soon get Sri Lankan citizenship, a prominent Sri Lankan Marxist party legislator claimed on Friday.
   
"We have discussed citizenship issue with Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake and he has assured the matter will be taken up soon," a parliament member of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, R Chandrasekaran, told PTI.
    
Efforts are on to complete the formalities in this regard by the end of this month, Chandrasekaran said.
    
The parliament select committee has been discussing the issue for the last six months after it was reported that several thousand refugees, who had left the island country due to the war between the Tamil Tiger rebels and the Lankan army, were residing in camps in Tamil Nadu.
    
Chandrasekaran said when the JVP members visited Tamil Nadu recently, as many as 28,500 ethnic Indians pleaded for help to get Lankan citizenship.
    
The refugees do not have citizenship of any country and also do not possess passports, birth certificates or identity cards to prove their identity, Chandrasekaran said.    

"We made a request to the prime minister to intervene soon, granting these refugees citizenship of the country. He gave a positive response towards the matter and agreed to present a cabinet paper," the MP said.
    
Since amendments must be made to the existing law for granting the citizenships, a bill has been prepared to this effect and was under the consideration of the attorney general's department.
    
"As soon as we get the bill approved, the PM has agreed to present it to parliament. All parties have promised their support towards the bill being passed in parliament," Chandrasekaran added.