Around 6,000 refugees want to return to Jaffna, 4,000 of whom are in Pesalai and Erukkalampiddi refugee camps on Mannar Island. The remaining 4,000 want to travel to Colombo, Vavuniya or the east for various reasons including medical treatment. Around 125 new students for Jaffna teacher training colleges are stuck in a church in Thalvupadu.
Some have found accommodation in lodges but many are left to live in the open. Prices in the district are steeply rising and those in lodges have spent all their money on food and accommodation since arriving in Mannar. People prefer to make the four-hour boat journey to Kurikadduvan, 40 miles north, from where a boat service is available to Jaffna, rather than suffer in Mannar.
Refugees in camps are provided food but lack other needs, particularly milk food for children. Health and sanitary facilities are minimal and relief agencies are struggling to cope. Many refugees are now seeking jobs in Mannar, but are finding it difficult to obtain the mandatory police work permits.
Displaced people in the Vanni rushed to Mannar following reports that ship services to the north, suspended in October, would resume in February. Passenger shipping from Mannar and Trincomalee to Jaffna were affected after the LTTE began targeting cargo ships in July last year. Sea Tigers sank two naval vessels on 22 February off Point Pedro in Jaffna killing over 60.
Over 2,000 people are at Uyilankulam living under trees without food and dependant on one well for water. Only 375 people a week are currently admitted into Mannar. Another 3,000 who want to go to Vavuniya returned to LTTE-held Pallamadu after the Army at Uyilankulam turned them back.
Essential Services Secretary MI Rafeek doubts that ship services to Jaffna will resume in the near future, because shipping companies are reluctant to undertake services over fears of safety. But reports say applications from two Colombo shipping agents to commence services from Trincomalee and Mannar are with the Ministry of Shipping.
Police permits are needed to travel from Mannar to southern areas, including Colombo. Obtaining travel permits can take several weeks, sometimes months, which the police say is due to delays in approval from the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB). In February most passengers to the south with permits were turned back at the Cheddikulam checkpoint on the Mannar-Medawachchiya road. Others spent many hours at the checkpoint while papers were checked and passengers filmed on video.
On 25 February, 55 people left Iluppaikadavai, 14 miles north of Mannar, in three boats for Rameswaram in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu where there are over 70,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in camps. After arrival, they realised that they had been deceived and left near Talaimannar naval base on Mannar Island. The Navy, fearing a Tiger attack, opened fire killing P Palraj, 23. The people say they decided to go to India because of extreme suffering in the Vanni caused by lack of food and medicines and also after the military at Uyilankulam denied them entry into Mannar.
In Vavuniya, 12,000 people from the Vanni who are held in government camps continue to suffer insanitary and crowded conditions. Most have been denied permission by the security forces to travel to Colombo or other southern areas. The military claims the restriction is necessary to protect the south from LTTE suicide bombers. The moderate Tamil United Front (TULF) says Vavuniya Tamil School refugee camp resident Rajendran Jeyachandran, 19, committed suicide because he did not have money to buy medicine for his diseased mother. According to the police, another refugee committed suicide in Sithamparapuram camp on 9 February.
Reports say the whereabouts of S Tharmapalasingham and K Senthilkumar, arrested by the Army at Poonthottam camp on 23 January, are unknown. According to TULF leader M Sivasithamparam no receipts were issued to relatives at the time of arrest, as required by Presidential directives under Emergency regulations. In a letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunge in February, Mr Sivasithamparam called for meaningful steps to end the misery of the displaced people.