New Delhi. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, 58,843 refugees from Sri Lanka and 72,312 from Tibet are living in the country.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Annual Report for 2020-2021, as of January 1, 2021, there are 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees living in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 refugee camps in Odisha.
Around 34,135 refugees are living outside the camps, but they are registered by the Tamil Nadu administration.
Necessary relief material is being given to them on humanitarian basis. Along with giving them accommodation in the camps, ration material, clothes, utensils, medical facilities and education facilities are being given on subsidy. The entire expenditure is borne by the State Government and later by the Central Government.
The central government spent Rs 1,154 crore on refugees between July 1983 and December 31, 2020.
The ministry said that between July 1983 and August 2012, around 3,04,269 refugees entered India. The Indian government provides them humanitarian aid but the ultimate goal of the government is to send them back to Sri Lanka.
As of March 1995, 99,469 refugees were deported to Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan nationals have not been deported systematically or systematically to Sri Lanka after March 1995. Some Sri Lankan citizens returned on their own or went to other countries.
Similarly, according to the last public survey conducted by the Central Tibet Relief Committee in 2019, the number of Tibetan refugees in the country as on 31 December 2020 was 72,312. Most of them took care of themselves. They became self-sufficient by taking advantage of agriculture and handicrafts schemes or self-employment in different parts of the country.
Karnataka has the highest number of 21,353 Tibetan refugees living in Himachal Pradesh 14,973, Arunachal Pradesh 4,759, Uttarakhand 4,858, West Bengal 3,079 and Ladakh 9,987.
The ministry said the resettlement work of Tibetan refugees is almost over. A housing scheme in Uttarakhand is in various stages of implementation. In order to provide equal facilities to all Tibetan refugees, the Central Government had issued the Tibetan Rehabilitation Policy in 2014.
The central government allocated Rs 40 crore to the Dalai Lama between 2015 and 2020 to meet the administrative and social work expenses of 36 Tibetan offices located in different parts of the country. This full amount has also been released.
The exodus of Tibetans from Tibet from 1959 began with the arrival of the Dalai Lama to India. Along with giving them shelter, the government also made arrangements for their temporary rehabilitation. Their distinct cultural identity is also protected.
—AnyTV News
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