The government is committed to settling back the IDPs in their original homes. In the Eastern Province alone, over 108,000 IDPs have already returned to their homes.  The remaining IDPs numbering about 13,877 families in the East (50,136 persons) are to be settled once the areas have been  cleared of land mines.

The settlement of IDPs back in their homes has been a voluntary process and it has been undertaken according to international standards. This has been acknowledged by the international community including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
           
The internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka are a result of the conflict as well as the massive tsunami of December 2004. Moreover, about 90,000 Muslim people in Jaffna became internally displaced overnight when the LTTE evicted them from Jaffna in 1990, and majority of them has not yet been able to return to their original places of living upto date.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
23 October 2007