New Delhi: With Sri Lanka staring at an unprecedented economic crisis, the refugee flow to Tamil Nadu has commenced after 16 Sri Lankan nationals reached the shores of the state.
On Tuesday, the refugees arrived in Tamil Nadu in two batches.
While six people, including a family of a man, wife and their four-month-old son and a woman and her six and 12-year-old children arrived on Tuesday afternoon, the rest arrived late at night.
In Sri Lanka there is a high financial crisis with prices of essential commodities, including milk and rice skyrocketing, petrol and diesel not available and power stations shut. Schools are not holding examinations due to a lack of paper for printing question papers.
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It may be noted that the Civil war in the early 1980s triggered an inflow of people from Sri Lanka and now around 60,000 refugees are living in 107 camps spread across Tamil Nadu and about 30,000 more live outside these camps or in general society.
The first batch of six refugees who arrived in the state have been identified as R Gajendran, 24, his wife Mary, 23, and their four-month-old son Nijath. Dony Ariston, 31, and her two sons, Esther, 12, and Moses, 6, also accompanied Gajendran's family. Dony has left behind her husband in Sri Lanka while traversing to India as a refugee.
Interacting with reporters at Madurai, Gajendran and the two women said that they don't have any jobs in Sri Lanka and essential commodities were not available while blackmarket prices were unaffordable. They also said that long queues can be seen in fuel stations.
They also said that they had paid an amount of Rs 50,000 to a boatman who had dropped them early morning of Tuesday at a sand dune near Rameswaram and were later rescued by the Indian coast guard. Ten other people also reached Tamil Nadu late evening of Tuesday but their details were not available.
Police sources told IANS that the refugees would be produced before a court in Ramanathapuram on Wednesday.