RECOGNIZED that over one million refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants have left Sri Lanka either as a result of the conflict or for other reasons, and that, among the Sri Lankans still outside the country, an estimated 85,000 are living in India and of these, some 64,000 are within refugee camps in Tamil Nadu;

NOTED that there exists a right of these persons to return to their country of origin, as set forth in Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 5(d)(ii) of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination;

UNDERTOOK to continue supporting, to the maximum extent possible within available resources, the initial integration of all spontaneous, voluntary returnees from India to Sri Lanka, providing them with levels of support which are equitable to that provided to spontaneously returning internally displaced persons, and seeking to ensure their full reintegration into society;

STRESSED that further investment remains necessary to create conditions conducive to safe and dignified organised voluntary repatriation of refugees from India to Sri Lanka; and

COMMITTED to ensuring that programmes to create such conditions of physical, legal and material safety for refugees voluntarily repatriating from India to Sri Lanka under organised arrangements will receive priority in their ongoing work; and

AGREED to continue to hold meetings involving the Government of Sri Lanka, the Government of India, the SIHRN, other relevant ministries of the Government of Sri Lanka, UNHCR and other internationally mandated organisations on the subject of voluntary repatriation, facilitated by UNHCR, to co-ordinate and progress the development of conditions conducive to the voluntary, safe and dignified return of refugees.