No reports of a recently-enforced permit system that restricts non-Colombo Tamils to a stay in the capital of no more than three months could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

Please consult LKA31542.E of 30 March 1999 for reports of the authorities and/or police enforcing measures upon Sri Lankans from the North and East in order to distinguish them from residents of Colombo. This Response discusses government plans in 1998 to issue Tamils from the North and East with special ID cards to distinguish them from Colombo-Tamils.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

Current History [Philadelphia]. Monthly. January 1998-March 1999.

Human Rights Solidarity: The Newsletter of the Asian Human Rights Commission [Hong Kong]. Monthly. September 1998-January 1999.

Human Rights Watch World Report 1999. 1998.
Immigration and Nationality Directorate, Home Office, London. November 1998.

Sri Lanka Country Assessment.

The Island International [Colombo]. Weekly. January 1999-present.

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge]. Monthly. October 1998-January 1999.
Research Directorate. January 1999.

Human Rights Information Package: Sri Lanka.

_____. IMR [Ottawa]. Weekly. August 1998-present.

Resource Centre. "Sri Lanka" country file. October 1998-present.

Sri Lanka Information Monitor: Situation Report [Colombo]. Monthly. October 1998-January 1999.

Sri Lanka Monitor [London]. Monthly. August 1998-January 1999.

Tamil Times [Surrey]. Monthly. 15 October 1998-15 February 1999.

Electronic sources: Internet, IRB Databases.