Over 60 Sri Lankan Tamils in Namakkal rehabilitation camp told to leave or renew visas
All these individuals, who arrived in India many years ago from Sri Lanka, invariably on tourist visas, came to the camp because their relatives were already staying there. They have been found to be overstaying in the country. Last week, the police in Paramathi Velur issued them written notices, directing them to leave the country within 10 days, as they have neither renewed their visas nor returned to Sri Lanka.
C. Vinothan is one of the individuals who has received the notice. He concedes that he left the camp in 2010 after obtaining an exit permit and returned five years later. After the civil war in Sri Lanka ended in May 2009, he visited the island nation the following year to get a first-hand account of the living conditions in Kilinochchi, in the Northern Province, from where he and his family had fled to Tamil Nadu in the 1990s as refugees.
However, in 2015, he returned to the camp. 'After all, all my family members are here. How can I remain without them?' Mr. Vinothan asks, adding that the remaining 61 individuals in the camp are in similar circumstances.
A senior government official, handling the subject of refugees, points out that once a refugee takes an exit permit and leaves a camp, he or she cannot go back there as the refugee.
According to Mr. Vinothan, this is not the first time that he and the others have been told to leave the place. 'In May, the message was conveyed to us orally. But, there was no follow-up,' he says, adding that 'this time, the authorities seem to be serious.'
Pointing out that the issue of notices to the 'residents' of the Namakkal camp has been done as a sequel to the direction of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs given to the States, in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, to identify all the foreigners who are overstaying illegally in the country and take action against them, the official says: 'I have gone through the records of each and every person. Their visas had expired many years ago.'
The official adds that 'all what we want is that these persons should apply for long-term visas and stay here lawfully.'
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