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Sri Lanka

 

Operation: Sri Lanka

Location

{"longitude":81,"latitude":8,"zoom_level":7}

Latest update of camps and office locations 13  Jan  2016. By clicking on the icons on the map, additional information is displayed.

Key Figures

2015 end-year results
500 individuals were submitted for resettlement
1,055 individual refugee status determination (RSD) decisions were issued
90 refugee children benefitted from support to access primary education
3,500 IDPs were supported to return to their areas of origin
450 Sri Lankan refugees voluntarily repatriated from India
1,000 youth in war-affected areas benefited from SGBV prevention and response awareness sessions

Latest Updates

People of Concern

67%
Increase in
2015
2015 55,290
2014 33,170
2013 85,554

 

[["Refugees",784],["Asylum-seekers",608],["IDPs",44934],["Returned IDPs",8112],["Returned refugees",852]]
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Budgets and Expenditure for Sri Lanka

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2015 {"categories":[2012,2013,2014,2015,2016],"budget":[17.74172832,10.25360214,8.99170517,7.662461469,6.38291893],"expenditure":[9.15739251,6.5175268,5.90226048,5.12725408,null]} {"categories":[2012,2013,2014,2015,2016],"p1":[10.1191169,7.68964019,7.65152409,6.274272789,5.54807908],"p2":[0.06872361,0.11339244,0.07574243,0.11979917,0.04578361],"p3":[null,null,null,null,null],"p4":[7.55388781,2.45056951,1.26443865,1.26838951,0.78905624]} {"categories":[2012,2013,2014,2015,2016],"p1":[4.76108042,5.49141794,4.87465761,3.87863457,null],"p2":[0.03930597,0.07555571,0.0605343,0.04603959,null],"p3":[null,null,null,null,null],"p4":[4.35700612,0.95055315,0.96706857,1.20257992,null]}
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View footnotes
 
CHOOSE A YEAR
  • 2015
  • 2016
 

Working environment

  • Sri Lanka experienced a major political transition in 2015, leading to increased engagement from the Government with the UN, development partners, donors, civil society organizations and local communities on a range of outstanding issues, specifically related to reconciliation, land, peace and sustainable development. 
  • The asylum environment improved, through joint cooperation with UNHCR, the Department of Immigration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to further improve asylum space. 

Population trends

  • The Government released approximately 2,800 acres of land in Jaffna and Trincomalee and over 2,330 IDP families have registered to return; close to 560 families have already returned. 
  • UNHCR registered some 490 people of concern in 2015. The majority of asylum-seekers (67 per cent) originated from Pakistan. 
  • 357 individuals departed for resettlement in 2015, representing the highest number of resettlement departures ever recorded in the Sri Lanka. 
  • Over 450 Sri Lankan refugees voluntarily repatriated from India, representing a 14 per cent increase from the previous year. 
  • Over 44,900 individuals were registered as IDPs at year end. 

Achievements and impact    


Refugees 
  • Over 500 individuals were submitted for resettlement and over 180 cases (some 360 individuals) departed for third countries – mainly to the US and Canada – including all Rohingya refugees rescued at sea in 2013. 
  • 1,055 individual refugee status determination (RSD) decisions were issued in 2015. 
  • Approximately 90 refugee children benefitted from support to access primary education. 
Refugee and IDP returnees 
  • Over 3,500 IDPs were supported to return to their areas of origin, including over 570 families who were provided transitional shelter support.
  • UNHCR facilitated the voluntary repatriation of over 450 Sri Lankan refugees from India. 
  • UNHCR maintained its focus on the prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), with 24 SGBV awareness sessions conducted, benefiting more than 1,000 youth in war-affected areas.  

Unmet needs

  • Asylum-seekers were not allowed to work in Sri Lanka. Subsistence allowances were reduced starting in June 2015 by 30 per cent, which limited access to basic needs for people of concern to UNHCR. 
  • In 2015, UNHCR stopped supporting secondary education for refugee children due to funding constraints. 
  • Livelihood opportunities remain inadequate for refugee and IDP returnees, following UNHCR’s disengagement from the livelihood support sector in mid-2015.