Bumpy road to citizenship – The Hindu

N. Leena, a young refugee living in a rehabilitation camp for Sri Lankan Tamils ​​in Thoothukudi district, S. Dilakshana, another young refugee in Sivaganga, and Inbamalar, a middle-aged woman staying in a rehabilitation camp in Virudhunagar, feel a renewed sense of hope. They were among those who benefited from the 772 new homes opened for refugees in the camp by Prime Minister MK Stalin on 7 October. They eventually had better shelter that protected them from the vagaries of nature. What has made them doubly happy is the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) gazette notification dated September 1 regulating the entry and stay of undocumented or overstaying Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who entered the country before January 9, 2015.

Both Ms Leena and Ms Dilakshana were born in Tamil Nadu – the former in Thoothukudi and the latter in Sivaganga – while Ms Inbamas migrated from Jaffna district in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province in 1990, when the civil war between Tamil rebels and Sri Lankan security forces resumed after a brief ceasefire.

Tin sheets and thatched roof

“Initially, we refugees were settled in houses made of tin sheets. [thatched roof houses, too, were provided]. Over a period of time, the houses improved,” says Ms. Inbamalar, who lives in Virudhunagar’s Mallankinaru. She credits the current Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government for improving the quality of life of the refugees. Skill development training and mental health awareness programs are the latest initiatives implemented for them.

MHA provides funds to the State government to share the cost of relief and other measures. The annual report for 2023-24 states that the Union government spent around ₹ 1,375 crore to provide relief and shelter to these refugees during the period between July 1983 and June 2024.

Life is more stressful than others for Thayalini, who lives in Thappathi camp in Thoothukudi, about 13 kilometers from Ettayapuram. He has experienced displacement many times since arriving in the State as a six-year-old child in 1990. In a way, having permanent, quality housing made him happier, as he had difficulties due to various factors, including a lack of suitable housing. Reminding that they were concerned about the facilities for domestic sewage and rainwater evacuation in the face of similar problems experienced in a camp in Dindigul, the refugees were relieved that the same situation no longer occurs in many new camps. R. Jayachandran, who lived in a rehabilitation camp in Sorakolathur, about 15 km from Tiruvannamalai town, came to Tamil Nadu in 1990 when he was 12 years old. As one of the key people in his camp, Mr. Jayachandran closely follows developments regarding refugees in general. “In my camp, we discussed the implications of MHA’s notification. This is definitely a step forward,” he observes.

The Union government’s decision was welcomed by the refugees not only in Sorakolathur but also in all other camps; although many people tend to view the declaration as a decision that removes the label of “illegal immigrant” for them. In fact, the order granted undocumented or overstay refugees exemptions from Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Part 3 of the Immigration and Aliens Act 2025 (passport or other travel document and visa requirement). According to the law, which came into force in April, entry and stay of foreigners without a passport or valid documents is punishable with a fine of Rs 5 lakh, imprisonment of up to five years, or both. The Act encompasses four laws: the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920; Aliens Registration Act, 1939; Aliens Act, 1946; and the Immigration (Liability of Carriers) Act, 2000.

The critical element of the notification in terms of exemption from criminal provisions is that refugees must be registered with the relevant authorities. However, there are also those, especially non-camp refugees, who cannot renew their registration for one reason or another and remain unregistered according to the understanding of the relevant authorities. These people cannot avail the benefit even if they were in India much before January 9, 2015, the date mentioned in the notification.

Time consuming procedure

The option available to these unregistered people is that they have to return to Sri Lanka after obtaining an exit visa from the authorities, a procedure that can take several months, and from there they must apply for a visa at the Indian High Commission in the neighboring country. Returnees are unlikely to have a smooth ride in Sri Lanka, as immigration officials may subject them to prolonged interrogations. A non-camp refugee who was forced to migrate to India in the mid-1980s after the 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom says there would be no purpose in going there.

Although this “unregistered refugee” has a full-fledged Sri Lankan passport issued through the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai (an arrangement that no longer exists), he is incapable of using it as the document does not contain any visa entries. Although India is not a party to the 1951 United Nations Convention and its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, not to send back (States are prohibited from forcibly returning persons to their country of origin where there are substantial grounds for concluding that such persons would be at risk of irreparable harm upon their return). However, the middle-aged refugee, who does not want his identity to be disclosed, is in a hurry to eliminate the uncertainty surrounding himself and his family.

Despite its nature of providing limited relief to registered refugees, the notification has prompted both subject matter experts and critics of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Center to react more or less similarly. Everyone expressed the hope that this would pave the way for refugees to obtain Indian citizenship. An expert reminds that before citizenship was provided through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, to six religious minorities belonging to Bangladesh and Pakistan (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, similar relief was first provided to refugees in a notification dated September 7, 2015. exempts it from the relevant legal provisions. Afghanistan was later included during the enactment of the CAA in 2019.

Former presidents of the State unit of the BJP, Union Minister L. Murugan and K. Annamalai, said on their social media accounts in early September that this development is just a step away from granting citizenship to refugees. However, welcoming the measure and deserving praise on behalf of the DMK, the party’s deputy general secretary and MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi felt that “real justice is yet to be done”. He argued that many of the later arrivals were “excluded by the arbitrary deadline” due to persecution. In his post, he stated that the “constant denial of a path to citizenship” had left their struggle “unfinished”.

Refugees interviewed by this journalist, passing through places with their origins in Sri Lanka, emphasized that only obtaining citizenship would provide them with a “permanent solution” to their problems. However, such a move could improve the livelihood opportunities of young people. While all young refugees pursue undergraduate (UG) degrees or diplomas, they always face many obstacles in their careers. The Commission for Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non-Resident Tamils, in its response under the Right to Information Act in July this year, gave a course-wise breakdown of refugee students, stating that the number of engineering UG students in 2023-24 and 2024-25 was 188 and 193 respectively; arts and science UG courses 1,150 and 1,152; diploma courses 245 and 191; and technical courses 246 and 384.

Ms. Dilakshana, who holds a degree in information technology, is upset that, unlike her friends, she could not appear for competitive exams, including those conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC). The young mother of two children says, “The only factor against me is that I am a refugee. Otherwise, I am as willing as others to prepare for and take exams. If given the opportunity, I will be successful.” Miss Leena also echoes her sentiments.

The refugee label, which does not make them comfortable, stands in the way of young people who are looking for a job that suits their educational qualifications. “While a handful of people from our community have been able to join IT firms, the majority of those in the productive age group are daily wage earners,” says Thangeswaran, who lives in Thottanuthu camp in Dindigul, adding that even those with engineering degrees go to big cities like Coimbatore for work, but return to camps as they cannot stay there for long.

Periodic head count

One of the reasons for this is that refugees in the camp are required to be present in person during the periodic census. It is for this purpose that they have to take a break from work and be present in the camps, he explains, adding that this creates practical difficulties. After all, painting and carpentry are some of the jobs that refugees generally undertake.

The principled position of the Union government is that eligible persons can obtain citizenship through registration or naturalization. However, most refugees are considered illegal immigrants, making them ineligible for citizenship. Therefore, as in the case of six minority groups in three South Asian countries who stopped being called illegal immigrants under the CAA in 2019, the latest notification has given them hope of obtaining Indian citizenship. Before the law, these people were exempt from criminal provisions. Even though the refugees endured suffering for a long time, the executive and the judiciary were understanding. The State government, which has taken a number of measures to ensure that refugees live a dignified life, is open to the idea of ​​doing much more amid the restrictions. In the last six to seven years, the Madras High Court has come to the rescue of refugees and granted citizenship to some of them within legal parameters.

Sri Lankan refugees know that the road ahead is not that simple and easy, especially in the search for Indian citizenship. A significant number of them claim that their ancestors traveled from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka within the last 200 years to work on tea plantations, which qualifies them for citizenship. Others say that having been born and raised in Tamil Nadu and accustomed to the lifestyle in the state, they see Sri Lanka as foreign as any other country. Although their life stories are complex, the young refugees have not lost hope in the Indian state and are optimistic about obtaining Indian citizenship, if not for themselves, at least for their heirs.