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Sri Lankan IDP camps


The final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War created 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who were transferred to camps in Vavuniya District and detained there against their will. This process, together with conditions inside the camps and the slow progress of resettlement attracted much concern and criticism from inside and outside Sri Lanka. On 7 May 2009 the Sri Lankan government announced plans to resettle 80% of the IDPs by the end of 2009. After the end of the civil war Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave assurances to foreign diplomats that the bulk of the IDPs would be resettled in accordance with the 180-day plan. On 1 December 2009, the IDPs were given limited freedom of movement. The pace of resettlement increased in 2010. The resettlement process was completed and camps were officially closed on 25 September 2012. However, the final batch of IDPs consisting of 110 families were relocated in Kepapilavu in Mullaitivu District-away from their original homes.

Although camps have been removed as of April 2015 as many as 13,459 families, accounting for 44,934 persons, were yet to be resettled and houses for them are still under construction

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) had been waging a full-scale war for an independent state of Tamil Eelam in the North and East of Sri Lanka since 1983. After the failure of the Norwegian mediated peace process in 2006 the Sri Lankan Military launched military offensives aimed at recapturing the territory controlled by the Tamil Tigers. By July 2007 the military had recaptured all of the Eastern Province. The military offensive in the Northern Province escalated in October 2008 as the military attacked the Vanni heartland of the Tamil Tigers. After successive defeats, including the loss of their de facto capital Kilinochchi, the Tamil Tigers were forced to retreat east. The civilian population of the Vanni also fled east. It is disputed as to whether the civilians fled on their own accord or were forced to do so by the Tamil Tigers. By January 2009 the Tamil Tigers and the civilians were trapped in a small piece of land on the north-east coast in Mullaitivu District.


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