Protecting Housing Rights for IDPs in Sri Lanka
Reprinted from Forced Migration Review
By Todd Wassel, F06
October 22, 2009
The return and relocation of IDPs in the East of Sri Lanka offer lessons on the critical issues that must be addressed if the housing rights of IDPs in the North are to be respected.
It is estimated that there are over 600,000 IDPs in Sri Lanka, of whom 270,000 have been displaced in the recent military campaign between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the Northern Province. Approximately 250,000 others were returned or relocated following the government’s military control of the Eastern Province between 2007 and the present. All IDPs, both recent and long-term, must find durable solutions to displacement before lasting peace can be consolidated...