Colombo – The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced USD 3 million in new funding to support IOM's return and resettlement operations targeting some 77,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in the north of the country.

The assistance will include transport to allow IDPs to return to their home districts; emergency shelter kits to build temporary housing and transitional shelters; water and sanitation facilities; and the provision of emergency health services across the region. 

"Our focus is on vulnerable families, such as female-headed households, the elderly and the disabled. By improving access to shelter, and providing clean water and health care, USAID is providing some of the critical services these people need to begin to rebuild their lives,” said US Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis.

"Thousands of displaced families are returning to their home districts with very little by way of shelter, water, sanitation and basic health services. IOM will tailor this assistance to plug the gaps and meet the most immediate needs in these areas," said IOM Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdi Ker.

Since the humanitarian emergency following the end of the war against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in May 2009, IOM has assisted the Sri Lankan authorities in providing emergency shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, and primary health care to thousands of IDPs, mainly in the Menik Farm displacement camp in Vavuniya district.

In late 2009 IOM scaled up its emergency operations at the request of the government to help over 100,000 IDPs return to their home districts from the camp, which previously housed over a quarter of a million people.

There are currently more than 93,000 IDPs remaining in the camp, many of whom are waiting for permission to return home, pending de-mining and removal of unexploded wartime ordnance from hundreds of towns and villages across the North of Sri Lanka.

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For more information please contact: IOM Sri Lanka, Selina Salkeld, Tel: +94.11.5325 300 (Ext392), E-mail: ssalkeld@iom.int, Stacey Winston, Tel: 5325 300 (Ext 340), E-mail: swinston@iom.int or Passanna Gunasekera, Tel: 5325 300 (Ext 341), E-mail:  pgunasekera@iom.int