UNHCR: Over 1,200 Lankan Tamils living in India return home

, Jan 12: More than 1,200 Sri Lankan nationals living in India as refugees have returned to their country in 2012 with monetary support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Between January and December last year, a total of 1,260 Tamil refugees who were residing in special camps across Tamil Nadu had returned to their home country with the UN agency's assistance, UNHCR said.

In 2011, more than 1,670 refugees returned to Sri Lanka as compared to 2,040 in the previous year in the aftermath of the end of the Eelam war IV in 2009.

In addition to the air charge paid to them for their travel, UNHCR also gave allowance for their travel from Colombo airport to their home towns.

More than 60,000 Sri Lankan Tamils are residing in refugee camps set up in the country, constituting 36 per cent of the total number of refugees living in India.

PTI