Remaining IDPs will be resettled as soon as demining completed, Sri Lankan government says

Only around 25,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) are remaining in welfare centers now and they will be resettled as soon as the demining is completed in the areas where they are to be resettled, the Sri Lankan government said today.

The government producing resettlement figures said the total number of IDPs remaining welfare centers in Vavuniya, Mannar and Trincomalee has come down to 25, 260 from over 280,000 IDPs who escaped from the LTTE in the height of the war last year.
According to the Ministry of Resettlement, government's speedy demining and resettlement programme has made it possible to resettle 203,455 IDPs belonging to 62,611 families in their places of origin.
The government said the IDPs who were in the welfare centers have been resettled in areas including Kandy, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, Kegalle, Badulla, Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, and Kilinochchi.
Another 27,619 IDPs have been released from the welfare centers on various medical and social grounds, adding to a total of returned and released IDPs from welfare centers Vavuniya, Mannar, and Trincomalee to 232,503.
According to the government another 10,252 IDPs have been released from the Jaffna welfare centers to their places of origin bringing the total number released so far to 242,755 persons.
The government with the help of UN agencies has ensured livelihood assistance to resettled IDPs. The IDPs are provided with an initial sum of 25,000 rupees and dry rations for six months.
Meanwhile, the authorities are accelerating the de-mining programme in the Mullaitivu District to facilitate the resettlement of the displaced persons currently remaining in camps.