Sri Lanka to amend law to help refugees

Colombo, Sep 22: Sri Lanka will amend its Citizenship Act, enabling more than 80,000 people of Indian origin and Lankans, who fled the country due to violence, to obtain its citizenship.

Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake submitted the memorandum to the Cabinet of Ministers to facilitate the refugees in India to obtain Sri Lankan citizenship, news reports quoting ColomboPage said.

Announcing the cabinet decision, Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said these people were not legally entitled to the Sri Lankan citizenship under the act since they have been living outside the country.

He said around 28,500 of them are Sri Lankans of Indian origin, some of who have not yet obtained Sri Lankan citizenship.

The minister added that although many of these refugees wanted to return to Sri Lanka, they could not obtain legal documents due to their citizenship status.

UNI