Sri Lanka reaffirms readiness to welcome back all Tamil refugees while cautioning against using their plight as a political tool ahead of elections.
Sri Lanka is prepared to accept and support all those who were forced to flee the country during the civil war and are now living as refugees in Tamil Nadu, Minister Bimal Rathnayake has stated in an interview with Indian media.
According to news reports, Minister Rathnayake called on the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments to refrain from using refugees as a tool for political campaigning. His remarks came in response to questions regarding the government’s current stance on returnees from Tamil Nadu, following a letter sent by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 15, 2026. In that letter, Stalin sought central government intervention on issues related to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who have been living in India for over four decades.
In addition to requesting New Delhi to revoke administrative instructions that prohibit the consideration of citizenship applications from Sri Lankan Tamils, Stalin also asked for an executive clarification exempting passport and visa requirements for citizenship or long-term visa applications where appropriate, based on identity documents issued by the Tamil Nadu government.
According to Stalin’s letter, approximately 89,000 individuals live in and around camps across Tamil Nadu, of whom around 40 percent were born there.
Minister Rathnayake pointed out that since the end of the civil war in January 2009, 18,542 individuals have returned to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu during the 16-year period from May of that year to June 2025. He emphasized that the government is certainly prepared to welcome those who wish to return.
“However, some of them were born in India, or have lived, studied, and worked there for decades, or have married Indian nationals. If they decide to obtain Indian citizenship, we cannot argue with that stance. That is their reality and their right to acquire citizenship there,” he said.
Further, sending a message to political actors in India, he stated, “My humble request to the Indian government and the Tamil Nadu government is, please do not use refugees as a political campaigning tool around elections. They have already endured immense suffering; we should treat their request with care and sensitivity.”
Minister Rathnayake, a prominent voice in the Anura Kumara Dissanayake administration, previously visited refugee camps in Tamil Nadu in 2007 and successfully pushed the Sri Lankan government to pass legislation granting citizenship to 28,500 individuals living in those camps.
In May 2025, when former Jaffna parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran raised the case of a 75-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil refugee returning from India who was arrested for allegedly leaving the island without a valid passport, Minister Rathnayake stated that the government was addressing the matter.
“The government immediately instructed the Immigration Department and the police not to detain returnees on the pretext that they had left through so-called illegal ports decades ago,” he said.
