In my community in Jaffna some 30 families were effected by the eviction in 1990

We met one of the camp leaders, Mr Fawzan who was a metal worker and used to lived in Moor Street Jaffna. ‘In my community in Jaffna some 30 families were effected by the eviction in 1990. We have never been given any good reason why the Tamil Tigers just suddenly told us to leave. We were all piled into a lorry and driven here to Puttalam and lost all our family goods and trading materials, we lost everything.”

‘I have 6 children’ and whilst saying this Mr Fawzan introduces me to his youngest, Murshid 4 years old, who rushes into the small grey brick house to sit by his Dad. ‘I want to be a mechanical engineer when I grow up’ says Murshid, but I think that’s more his father’s wish. Murshid munches some salted roasted lentils and offers me some. ‘My eldest son is now 25yrs and is a street vendor selling small fish and lentil cakes, ‘wade’, which he makes himself. He earns about 300 rupees each day from this’ Mr Fawzan explains. ‘Another son 20 yrs works as a shop assistant and earns 200 rupees a day, so I am lucky that some members of my family can work. I got training as a mason but it is difficult to find work for me in this area so I can only work sometimes. I have built my own house here in brick, with a tin roof supplied by FORUT and UNCHR, but I have no land title and so when, or if, I finally leave here, I will lose it all again. I can’t sell it to anyone’. ‘But I don’t want to return to Jaffna.’ Says Mr Fawzan ‘What security will I ever have that the same won’t happen again?’. 'We need to settle here, many of us would given the chance.'