Now a ‘go back migrants’ call in Colombo

Defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says migrants to Colombo from other parts of Lanka should return to their native places if they do not have a valid reason to stay in the Capital, reports Sutirtho Patranobis.

Migrants to Colombo from other parts of Sri Lanka should return to their native places if they do not have a valid reason to stay in the Capital, defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said on Friday.

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Rajapaksa, called the migration, an “abnormal thing” and the situation “alarming” and said it poses a security threat because the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could use the migrants as a front to carry out attacks in the city.

Rajapaksa’s statement to a local newspaper has rekindled dark memories of a June night in 2007 when hundreds of Tamils were picked up from their Colombo homes and dumped in the east and north of the country.

Rajapaksa did not say that the government would take action against migrants but his statement has raised the specter of the forced eviction of 375 Tamils from various parts of Colombo in 2007.