UNHCR is scaling back operations in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province

Batticaloa: The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR is closing its office in Batticaloa of Sri Lanka's Eastern Province as normalcy has returned to the war-ravaged region and most of the displaced have returned to their homes or resettled.



A statement issued by the UNHCR in Sri Lanka said the agency is starting to scale back its operations to help internally displaced people in Eastern Sri Lanka and is closing its office in Batticaloa this week.

"As the majority of internally displaced people in Batticaloa District over the last eight years have now returned to their places of origin and have been receiving protection and assistance from UNHCR, we are now able to start phasing down our operations," the statement quoted the UNHCR Representative in Sri Lanka Michael Zwack.
The humanitarian agency has started its operations in the East in 2002 and since then it has helped the people displaced in various stages of the Sri Lankan government's armed conflict with the Tamil Tiger rebels.
According to UNHCR, at the height of the conflict, 160,000 people were displaced from within Batticaloa and the district also received 140,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) from other locations in the east, particularly in 2006 from Trincomalee District further north.
The government chased the rebels away and took control of the Eastern Province in 2007 after which the government launched an accelerated program to resettle the displaced with the assistance of UNHCR.

There are still 90 families (433 individuals) displaced in Batticaloa and 507 families (1,756 people) displaced in the neighbouring district of Ampara, waiting for demining activities to finish before they can safely return home, the UNHCR says. However the agency expects the remaining displaced people to return to their homes within the next couple of months.
UNHCR said it will maintain a small presence in Batticaloa until the end of the year to assist the returning IDPs as they will need supplies to establish their homes. After that the agency will continue to monitor their well-being from its Trincomalee office.
UNHCR says the protection work is necessary to ensure the sustainability of the return and the agency has tried to find solutions to issues that affect the well-being of displaced people including liaising with the relevant government agencies, military and police.
The humanitarian agency says its current focus is on assisting returnees to the North with some 54,000 displaced people still living in camps.