Drawing competitions for children generally get entries showing flowers, landscapes, pets or happy families. But a contest organised for Sri Lankan Tamil refugee children brought out pictures of guns, houses on fire and boats full of people on rough seas.The pictures by the children in refugee camps in various parts of Tamil Nadu were displayed…

Mayuran sits at a computer in the crowded thatched-roofed office in Egmore, analysing data on recent arrivals of Sri Lankan refugees. The 23-year-old is a volunteer at OfERR — Organisation for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation, which helps Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu. “I work in the Advocacy Unit, assisting the organisation’s founder S.C. Chandrahasan,” he…

IF there is one constant refrain among the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu - their inflow began in 1983 - it is that they do not want to return until a permanent solution is found to the ethnic conflict back home. This was conveyed to Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, Sri Lanka's Minister of Rehabilitation,…