Country: Sri Lanka

Group: Tamil

Date Finalized:

Team: Nichole Dahlen (Lead), Ash Pessaran, Stefania Becerra Lavado, David Hammerle, Hannah Lux, and Madison Chester

Content Warning: Forced relocation

Approximate Time Period: 1972-2009; Remain currently displaced

The Tamils are a predominantly Hindu, Tamil-speaking minority group that live primarily in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka (Minority Rights Group, 2018). They meet the criteria of the “forced away” code because a substantial number of Tamils moved within and away from Sri Lanka to avoid ethnic-based persecution and the Sinhalese majority made a concerted attempt to force the Tamil to move.

The 1972 Sri Lankan Constitution included a state-sponsored colonization scheme that intentionally diluted the concentration of Tamils in traditionally Tamil territories (Minority Rights Group, 2018). Rising nationalism among the majority Sinhalese population and the associated increase in discrimination against the minority Tamil population caused the Tamils to form a liberation group called the Tamil Eelam Liberation Front (LTTE) (Minority Rights Group, 2018). Violence escalated between the Tamil and the Sinhalese throughout the 1970s and 1980s, until the Sri Lankan Civil War broke out in 1983. The war began when Sinhalese race-rioters killed thousands of Tamil and burned Tamil homes and businesses (Minority Rights Group, 2018; Jayawardena, 2020). As a result of these Anti-Tamil riots, nearly every Tamil living in an urban area lost their home and or business. Half a million Tamils fled Sri Lanka (Bala 2015; Minority Rights Group, 2018).

During the Sri Lankan Civil War, multiple Sinhales offensives displaced large numbers of Tamil: in 1996, a Sinhalese onslaught displaced 200,000 civilians; in 2007, the Sinhalese displaced 250,000 people in their fight for the Eastern Province; and in 2007, another Sinhalese government offensive displaced thousands of Tamils (Minority Rights Group, 2018). During the war, the destruction of property disproportionately affected Tamils, in part because much of the fighting took place in majority-Tamil territory (Minority Rights Group, 2018).

The war internationally displaced Tamils (817,000 by 2001) and internally displaced Tamils (280,000 by the end of the war, 2009) (Jayawardena 2020; Minority Rights Group, 2018). Approximately 73,000 Sri Lankans lived in refugee camps in Tamil Nadu from 1983 to 2010 (Jayawardena, 2020). Additionally, due to ethnic prosecution and civil war, Tamils living abroad as students or temporary workers who originally planned to return home chose to stay abroad (Jayawardena, 2020).

In 2014, 7 years after the Civil War ended, thousands of Tamils remained displaced (Lansford, 2017). As recently as 2020, displacement continues to be an issue for a substantial number of Tamils (Anandakugan, 2020). Although the government policies that promoted Sinhalese settlement in areas typically occupied by Tamils are no longer active, these former policies contribute to the Tamil’s continued displacement (Lansford, 2017). Additionally, the Sinhalese Army continues to occupy “High Security Zones” in Tamil territory, preventing Tamils from returning. As of 2016, the military continued to control 44,000 acres (Lansford, 2017). The UN reported that internally displaced Tamils continue to face poor living conditions and challenges reintegrating with society (Lansford, 2017).

To see how less privileged castes of Tamils are more likely to remain displaced today, read our Forced Away syntheses on specific Tamil castes. The data quality is rated a 3/3 because there are ample, reliable sources indicating the forced relocation of Sri Lankan Tamils.

Sources

  1. Anandakugan, N. (2021, April 30). The Sri Lankan Civil War and its history, revisited in 2020. Harvard International Review. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://hir.harvard.edu/sri-lankan-civil-war/
  2. Bala, M. (2015). Transitional Justice in Sri Lanka: Rethinking Post-War Diaspora Advocacy for Accountability. International Human Rights Law Journal, 1(1). https://doi.org/https://via.library.depaul.edu/ihrlj/vol1/iss1/2
  3. Chakraborti, T. (2022, September 27). Displacement among Sri Lankan Tamil migrants: The Diasporic Search for home in the aftermath of war. by Diotima Chattoraj. OUP Academic. Retrieved April 1, 2023, from https://academic.oup.com/jrs/article-abstract/35/4/1645/6724356
  4. Lansford, T. (2017, March 17). Sri Lanka: Treatment of Tamils in society and by authorities; the Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), including relation. Department of Justice. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1047356/download
  5. Minority Rights Group. (2018, March). Tamils. World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. Retrieved from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/tamils/
  6. Jayawardena, P. (2020). Sri Lankan out-migration: Five key waves since independence. University of Colombo Review, 1(1), 108. https://doi.org/10.4038/ucr.v1i1.32