18,000 IDPs in Sri Lanka welfare centers remaining to be resettled

Sri Lanka's Resettlement Ministry says that only 18,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Menik Farm welfare center in Vavuniya are remaining to be resettled.

The Ministry statistics also reveal that over 80,000 persons are yet to be resettled by the government in the Northern Province.
Deputy Resettlement Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan has told the media that while there are 18,000 IDPs remaining in the Menik Farm welfare center, there are 72,000 persons who are currently residing with relatives in the North.

"The 18,000 persons still living in Menik Farm are from areas where the final stages of the battle took place in the Mullaitivu District. The area is heavily mined. These people can return to their homes once the de-mining operation is completed," the Deputy Minister has said.

Muralitharan has said that the 72,000 IDPs living with the relatives are those whose houses are located in the high security zones (HSZs) in Jaffna.

He was however, unable to give an exact time frame as to when the resettlement of those persons in Mullaitivu and the HSZs would take place, Muralitharan has said.