Many returned refugees struggle to secure adequate housing. Homes and property may have been destroyed or damaged during the war and land title documents may have been lost, and in some areas the military has still not release the land and they forcibly occupied for ‘high-security zones’ back to former residents. Returned refugees must also stay for a minimum of six months at one location to apply for National Identity Cards (NIC), essential civil documents to secure employment, education or other services in Sri Lanka. To complete the six-month requirement until they get a housing assistance, OfERR’s temporary shelter programme has been set up. The objective is to assist the vulnerable refugee returnees with the transitional shelter upon return, to restart their lives in a positive way in their native villages. For the shelter assistance programme, the vulnerability of the returnees were assessed with the participation of village level government officials and CBOs.

Upon finalizing the beneficiary for support, the materials were provided for the owner-driven construction of temporary shelters. Overall, there were 55,878 beneficiaries of refugee returnee community assisted with the provision of temporary shelter in the northern and eastern provinces.

The shelter support is regarded as a prime need among other needs for the returning refugees and returned refugees in Sri Lanka. The refugee returnees upon return stay with their relatives or friends until they receive housing assistance or build their own housing. But in practice, staying with relatives is highly prevalent and they hardly build their own house. Staying with relatives leads to unnecessary problems including lack of safety and security, sexual exploitation, abuses, etc. Though there are housing schemes and plans including Indian Housing plan, the past experience illustrates that all returnees could not receive housing assistance within short periods.