Dokument #1021290
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
Please find attached a number of documents
that describe the activities of the International Committee of the
Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and other organizations actively assisting refugees and
displaced people in Sri Lanka.
One of the attached documents states that
several non-government organizations are working closely with the
UNHCR, including Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF), Save the Children
Fund (UK) and Care International (Robinson 1991, 24). The document
adds that "in the past nine years [as of 1991], however, a diverse
mix of indigenous organizations has supplemented the central and
state governments' aid to Tamil refugees both inside and outside
the [refugee] camps" (Ibid., 31). In addition to the
Organization for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OFERR), the report
names some of the indigenous organizations that are "quite local in
their focus," including the Community Rehabilitation Organization
Project (CROP), the Medical Unit for Service of Tamils (MUST) and
the United Front Federation for Repatriates (UFFR)
(Ibid.).
Other attachments include less detailed
information on assistance work provided by various organizations,
and one of the attached documents includes a listing of human
rights organizations in Sri Lanka that may or may not be involved
in assisting displaced Tamils from the North of Sri Lanka.
One report not included with this Response
states that the Peace Brigades International (PBI) and the War
Resisters International (WRI) have provided "escort support" for
lawyers in Colombo (World Solidarity Forum 1990, 31). Response to
Information Request LKA1995 (8 Sept. 1989) refers to the Tamil
Refugee Rehabilitation (TRRO). However, it is not clear from the
available sources whether this organization continues to exist and
operate in Sri Lanka at present.
Additional references to non-government
organizations working in Sri Lanka can be found on pages 10-12 of a
Danish Refugee Council report included in the Immigration and
Refugee Board Documentation Centre's issue paper Sri Lanka:
Repatriation (IRBDC May 1989).
The organizations named in the attachments
and other referred documents may not be all the organizations
currently active in Sri Lanka, and changes in the named
organizations may have occurred since the dates of publication of
the attached documents.
Additional and/or corroborating information
could not be found among the sources currently available to the
DIRB.
Immigration and Refugee Board
Documentation Centre (IRBDC), Ottawa. 8 September 1989. Response to
Information Request LKA1995.
. May 1989. Sri Lanka:
Repatriation.
Robinson, Court. October 1991. Sri
Lanka: Island of Refugees. Washington, D.C.: United States
Committee for Refugees.
World Solidarity Forum on Sri Lanka for
Justice and Peace. May 1990. Report of Programme in Sri Lanka
& Thailand. Bangkok: World Solidarity Forum on Sri Lanka
for Justice and Peace.
International Peace Research Institute
(PRIO). October 1986. International Alert: Prospects for Peace
in Sri Lanka. Oslo: International Peace Research Institute
(PRIO), pp. 19-20.
Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific.
February 1991. Long Road to Jaffna: The Situation of Sri Lanka's
Tamil Refugees. Bangkok: Jesuit Refugee Service Asia Pacific,
pp. 7-15.
Keller, Walter. May 1990. Sri Lanka:
Informationen für HilfswerksvertreterInnen im
Asylverfahren. Lausanne: Swiss Central Office for Refugee
Assistance (OSAR), p. 57.
Robinson, Court. October 1991. Sri
Lanka: Island of Refugees. Washington, D.C.: United States
Committee for Refugees, pp. 18-33.
United States Committee for Refugees.
1992. World Refugee Survey 1992. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Committee for Refugees, pp. 106-107.