Allow women, children, old persons to leave IDP camps – UNP

The United National Party (UNP) has called on the government to allow around 175,000 women, children and old people, forcibly detained in northern refugee camps, to live with their relatives either in Sri Lanka or abroad.

Addressing a press conference in Colombo yesterday the head of the UNP Media Unit, Lakshman Kirielle MP, said that the government is violating the basic human rights of the IDPs by preventing them from escaping the appalling conditions in the camps.

He said that the inhuman conditions prevailing in the IDP camps where refugees are inhumanly being forced to stay is an insult to Sri Lanka.

“Thousands of IDPs would die if remedial steps are not taken immediately. The government having accused the LTTE of holding Tamil civilians hostage, is now doing more or less the same thing”, he added.