Now Reading: Sri Lankan Tamils Denied Long-Term Visa Eligibility
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Sri Lankan Tamils Denied Long-Term Visa Eligibility
### Quick Summary
– A recent Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) order exempted undocumented Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who entered India before January 9, 2015 from being labeled “illegal migrants,” protecting them from deportation.
– Despite the exemption, these refugees are not eligible to apply for long-term visas (LTVs), wich are typically issued for periods between one and five years and are a precursor to citizenship.- Members of six minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan are exempted and eligible to apply for LTVs under similar conditions.- Sri Lankan Tamils can still possibly acquire Indian citizenship through provisions in the Citizenship Act but face restrictions based on existing MHA protocols dating back to 1986 that discourage naturalization for refugees who came after July 1983.
– An advisory committee in Tamil Nadu recommended issuing LTVs to Sri Lankan Tamils, citing legal issues that restrict their mobility and ability to seek citizenship. refugees have frequently enough struggled in courts over such matters.
– According to an MHA report (2023-24), approximately 3,04,269 Sri Lankan refugees arrived in India during various phases of migration as July 1983. As of June 1, 2024:
– 90,603 remain in refugee camps or other sites across Tamil Nadu
– Organized repatriation ceased post-March 1995
– Only some have left voluntarily.
### Indian Opinion Analysis
The latest exemption order by the Union government offers necessary legal protection against deportation but stops short of granting avenues like long-term visas or easing paths toward citizenship for undocumented Sri Lankan Tamil refugees present before January 2015. While this policy appears humanitarian in intent-ensuring vulnerable populations on indian soil have safety-it reflects longstanding hesitancy by successive governments regarding permanent integration or facilitating broad naturalization processes.
The exclusion contrasts with eligibility provided under similar recent exemptions concerning minority groups from neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh-a choice likely influenced by ancient refugee-repatriation goals around Sri Lanka’s political stability post-civil war. The reliability ranking repatriating feasibility emerges remains critical inequity operational-level fluctuation decades confirmed-indicate possible barriers tamford comments/paradigm predictions neutrality logical framework-table-based acknowledgment tentative-cohesion scores..
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