UNHCR also says that the Indian government has reaffirmed that no one seeking refuge would be turned away. Currently there are some 70,000 Sri Lankan refugees in government camps in Tamil Nadu and 80,000 outside, 37,000 of whom are registered with the police.
It has become increasingly difficult for refugees to cross the Palk Strait to reach India due to restrictions by both governments. Fearing naval patrols, boatmen from Sri Lanka often leave the refugees on sand bars between Mannar Island and Dhanushkodi, the southern tip of Pamban Island. Tamil Nadu authorities saved some 140 people stranded on sand bars in early June. However, senior government officers warned that fishing boats bringing Sri Lankan refugees will be confiscated.
Forty four other refugees, including 14 children, on a sand bar in Sri Lankan waters were saved by the Sri Lankan Navy. They were produced before the Mannar court on 17 June and detained. The refugees survived on raw fish and sea water for five days and some children had become unconscious. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi says that he has urged Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to involve the Indian Navy to save refugees left on sand bars.
Mr Karunanidhi courted controversy in early June, when he said that Tamils should be granted equal rights or there should be a bloodless division of Sri Lanka, as in the case of the separation of Czech and Slovak republics in January 1993. Sri Lankan ministers condemned Mr Karunanidhi, arguing that the division of the island will initiate the fragmentation of India.
Indian External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh, on a visit to Sri Lanka on 11 June, reaffirmed India’s commitment to Sri Lanka’s unity and territorial integrity. A statement at the end of the visit says that the two countries will jointly and separately work towards lasting peace in the island.