More than 100,000 Tamil refugees face unsafe conditions under a Sri Lankan government plan to return them to areas scarred by recent fighting between troops and Tiger rebels, aid agencies said Sunday.
"The humanitarian community fears that the lack of proper planning might put returnees in a situation where safety and dignity are not ensured," a committee of aid agencies including UN bodies, said in a statement.
But a Sri Lankan official said Sunday that the first batch of 4,000 people will be allowed to go back to their homes in the embattled eastern Batticaloa district from Monday. "We will have this process conducted over 11 days," the official said, adding that nearly 140,000 people displaced within the district will be moved back.
The refugees fled towns and villages in the past year as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan military engaged in fierce fighting including artillery duels and strikes by the Sri Lankan airforce. The stepped-up fighting since December 2005 in the 35-year ethnic conflict has taken a heavy toll on civilians, the aid agencies said, adding they were concerned that conditions had not improved enough to bring people home.