Sri Lanka closes welfare camp, number of displaced down to 16,000

Sri Lanka Ministry of Resettlement says the authorities have closed the Zone-4 area of the Menik Farm relief village for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Vavuniya on Tuesday.

The authorities have decided to close the camp as six hundred IDPs who were sheltered at Zone-4 were resettled Tuesday in Mamule reducing the total number of IDPs remaining in the welfare camps in Vavuniya to 16,025.

With the closure of Zone-4, only 4 welfare centers remain in Vavuniya, the Chief Coordinating Officer of the Competent Office for IDPs in Vavuniya has said.

According to the Ministry, only 17,183 IDPs including the 1,158 IDPs in Jaffna camps are remaining to be resettled.

During the final phase of the war in May 2009 over 280,000 displaced civilians who sought shelter in the government controlled areas were housed in the Manik Farm welfare village.

The government says the resettlement of the remaining IDPs in the camps will be completed once all landmines are cleared as most of the remaining IDPs in Manik Farm camps are from the uncleared areas of Mullaitivu.