Sri Lankans began flocking to India in a growing wave of immigration

At least six people entered the Indian state of Tamil Nadu illegally on Wednesday after arriving by boat from Sri Lanka, an island nation 54 miles from India’s southern coastline at the shortest distance. Hindustan Times A report on Thursday noted that the incident marked a growing wave of immigration as dozens of Sri Lankans fled to India for India after its economy nearly collapsed in March.

Arriving in Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka on 27 July, the group of six belonged to two families and consisted of three children. Hindustan Times Posted on 28 July with reference to the original report by the Press Trust of India (PTI). The two families left their hometown of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in recent days, before boarding a boat for the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu through the waters of the Polk Strait that separates Sri Lanka from India. Indian government officials “rescued” the group from an island off the coast of Tamil Nadu and then transported it to the Mandapam refugee camp in Tamil Nadu.

“Over the past few months, many Sri Lankans, mostly Tamils, have left the island country to enter India via Tamil Nadu as they have not been able to get through the crisis when prices for essential goods and fuel soared. there,” he said. PTI. 28 July.

“Seven people from two families in Turkey last week [Sri] Lanka comes to the state [of Tamil Nadu]”, the agency recalled on Thursday.

“They were dropped off near the island of Rameshwaram. [in Tamil Nadu] The boatmen were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard and taken to Dhanushkodi to be handed over to the police,” he said.

In the early 1900s, the Indian government established the Mandapam Refugee Camp in Tamil Nadu to house Sri Lankan immigrants who entered India illegally through the southern state.

“Mandapam, a refugee center in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu, has received about 85 Tamils ​​from Sri Lanka who have fled the island in the past few weeks,” Indian news site The Citizen reported on May 26.

Sri Lanka’s economy entered crisis mode in early March after Colombo’s foreign exchange reserves, which it has traditionally used to buy essential imports such as food, fuel and pharmaceuticals, effectively ran out. The development caused severe shortages of essential goods in Sri Lanka. This encouraged citizens to call the country’s government to resign due to the mismanagement of the Colombo economy. Over the past few months, anti-government protests have turned into riots several times before former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa finally succumbed to public pressure and resigned on 14 July.

Sri Lanka’s relationship with the Indian state of Tamil Nadu goes beyond physical proximity. The two entities are linked by a significant Tamil population. Tamils ​​are members of an ethno-linguistic group that traces its origins to the region encompassing present-day Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Tamil is related to the Dravidian language, which is considered one of the oldest in the world and has a recorded existence for over 2000 years.