People wishing to leave Mannar District are required to have special identity cards which are issued to residents in Army-controlled areas. Police say two men who attempted to go to Colombo with false identity cards were arrested in January. In mid January, 600 civilians were waiting in Mannar to go to Jaffna.
In Trincomalee, 1,237 Jaffna people arrived in the ship Lanka Muditha on 25 January. Another 7,000 in Jaffna have applied to travel to the south. Thousands of people who wish to go to Jaffna are stuck in Trincomalee. According to reports, the Defence Ministry has denied permission to a shipping company to run passenger services to Jaffna. North-East Governor Asoka Jayawardena says that the safety of the passengers is the main concern of the government. The LTTE has in the past hijacked or attacked military and cargo vessels near Trincomalee.
The police arrested farmers N Prabhakaran and S Balasingham at Muthur on 4 January on suspicion of LTTE links. Two LTTE boats were sunk when the Navy and Sea Tigers clashed at sea off Pulmoddai on 11 January.