No ID, no security – the dilemma of Sri Lanka’s returnees

http://www.irinnews.org/report/98420/no-id-no-security-the-dilemma-of-sri-lanka-s-returnees

COLOMBO, 17 July 2013 (IRIN) - Close to 100,000 returnees in Sri Lanka’s north lack national identity cards (NICs), more than four years after the end of the country’s decades-long civil war. 

“Many people cannot resume their lives as NICs are the passport to accessing multiple services and were made mandatory for voting in 2006,” Suresh Premachandran, a member of parliament (MP) with the Tamil National Alliance, one of the largest national parties representing minority Tamils from the north, told IRIN. 

According to the United Nations, more than 460,000 displaced persons have returned to Northern Province - which is home to more than 1 million inhabitants - since government forces declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who had been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland since 1983.