For IDPs, Freedom Is A Good Problem

One IDP I know recently got out of Menik Farm. I gave her a call to see how she’s doing. She said her family is staying with her mother in Vavuniya. The kid is going to Montessori and they’re pretty much home-free. Which is great. Now she has problems like starting over and putting food on the table.

Getting out

People are getting out, though this isn’t reported as much as the initial outrage. The UNHCR reports 103,000 people were released between August and November. Many of those, however, have not been as lucky as my friend. Many IDPs have just been moved to other camps closer to their homes. Many are staying with host families, and resources are strained.

This is, however, an improvement. My friend is a unique case in that her freedom seems almost complete.

She has a family and all her documents and she just got out. She filed the paperwork with the camp grama sevaka, waited and got out with a bunch of other Vavuniyans. Apart from an initial visit they’re not monitored by the security forces. She says they can travel.

Actually living

There, is of course, more to life. She walked out with a bag full of documents and a few clothes. She wasn’t given transport or an allowance or anything, just let go. This was an improvement, but now what?
My friend lost her job inside the camp once she got out. They don’t desire or hope to move back to Mullaitivu, so they’re basically starting from scratch in a new town . She says it’s good that the fighting and bombs have stopped, but now she has to put food on the table.

The rest

Most of the released, however, have it much worse. If you’ve been in a government office you can imagine what it’s like having your entire life dictated by one. Those in transport camps are closer to home only as abstract points on a map. Some have been resettled in unsuitable ways and buried in bureaucracy. There hasn’t been enough attention paid to livelihood or self-sufficiency, which is both debilitating and inefficient.

Then there are the hundreds of thousands still in Menik Farm. I was reading some case studies which were challenging in unique ways, given the confinement. However, many of the general themes are very similar to what the Ministry of Justice is discovering throughout the country. Women and children don’t feel (and aren’t) safe. Someone is brewing arrack, men are coming in and a mother is worried about her daughters. There’s no privacy while bathing. These cases are worse in the cruel shuffle and confinement of a camp, but they’re fundamental social problems we have as a country.

Baseline of bad

These issues won’t necessarily be solved once we let people out. I truly commend the government for releasing people, even if it’s in fits and starts. Many things are messed up, some willfully, but the process is moving in a positive direction.

It’s easy for me to say when I live in comfort, but I think the situation is getting better. Soon, inshallah, it will be as bad as the rest of the country. People will be unemployed and women and children won’t be safe. These are serious problems, but at least better than before. When I went during the war the issues were amputees and orphans. Then it was disease and water. Now it is at least approaching a baseline of bad.