“As residents of Jaffna and people belonging to different faiths, we resolutely say that our homes are wide open to refugees and asylum seekers,” Jaffna People’s Forum for Co-existence (JPFC) said in a media statement.
It made the announcement after a refugee family was forced to leave Jaffna seeking refuge elsewhere after the police warned of possible attacks on them. The JPFC stated it is ‘deeply saddened and ashamed’ by the incident as a group comprising residents of Jaffna and people belonging to different faiths.
“The incident happened in the midst of reprisals against refugees from Muslim-majority countries after the Easter bombings of churches and hotels,” it stated adding, since the April 21 attacks, these refugees have had to leave their rented homes and have been expelled from various other locations offered as temporary shelter in the South. During this time, the refugee family was offered shelter at a home owned by a Tamil resident in Jaffna. However, when the family went to register themselves at the Jaffna police station, the officials had told them that they will not be provided safety if Hindu extremists attacked them. The family was forced to seek shelter elsewhere.
The JPFC said it was regrettable that a single family failed to find safety in Jaffna “amidst a community that has benefitted immensely from the generous gestures by others who have provided refuge for us in spite of threats during our times of desperation.”
The group added that having faced similar situations they understood the refugees’ plight and stressed they will welcome refugees who have been subjected to attacks and mob violence. “We are also aware of the feelings of abandonment when officials and responsible agencies fail to do their duty,” the JPFC stated. Urging the Sri Lanka Police and people with authority in Jaffna to ensure security for the refugees and not to “cite communal pressure as a pretext to stifle offers of support and expression of solidarity made by the people of Jaffna to the refugees,” the statement noted.