High Commission of Sri Lanka in India

Sri Lanka wants to take back all Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are now in India, country’s High Commissioner to India Austin Fernando said on Friday

"With around 5,000 of these refugees having already returned, we now want to take the rest of them back to their original places," Fernando said while delivering a speech on "Post 2015: Reconciliation Milestones in Sri Lanka", organised by the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

According to Fernando, who took charge as the new Sri Lankan High Commissioner in November last year, there are around 100,000 of these refugees who had come to India during the civil war in the Indian Ocean island nation that ended in 2009.

He said that while some 20 to 30% of these people would like to stay on in India, the rest would like to go back, adding that he would soon be going to south India to meet them.

Sri Lanka is expecting over two folds growth in the number of Indian tourist arrivals to the island nation this year, banking on the Ramayana Circuit and other common cultural heritage sites.

The country expects total Indian tourist arrivals to cross one million mark in 2019, Sri Lanka Minister of Tourism Development John A E Amaratunga said. In 2018, around 450,000 Indian tourists visited Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka,has developed the Ramayana circuit to woo Indian tourists by identifying several places connected with the ancient Indian epic.

"We have rediscovered the Ramayana circuit. We have identified several spots and we are coming out with the authentic documentaries," said Amaratunga.

In an exclusive conversation with WION, Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Austin Fernando said Sri Lanka has a "relationship of relationships" with India while China is a "friend." 

Fernando spoke to WION diplomatic correspondent Siddhant Sibbal on a host of issues such as debt crisis, India's help to the island nation, among others. This is his first interview to an Indian media channel after becoming Sri Lanka's envoy to India. Fernando was present at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia (FCC) in New Delhi.

WION: Status of Sri Lanka-India ties?

Fernando: The relationship is at a very high level of cooperation, friendship. As I always say, we are not only neighbours and friends. We have a relation. Relationship of relationships. 

A recent survey has revealed that Colombo in Sri Lanka is the number one ‘must-photograph’ travel destination of 2019. Recently, a study was conducted on around 1.3 million social media posts and as per the research, most of the people want to click picture the Asian city of Colombo in 2019. If was followed by Yokohama in Japan and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda.