United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has appealed for $18.6 million to assist an estimated 500,000 persons internally displaced in Sri Lanka due to the armed conflict.

The funds – part of the Sri Lanka Common Humanitarian Action Plan – will go towards protection of the displaced, returnees and other populations affected by the fighting between Government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It will also be used to provide shelter, non-food relief items and camp management.

Some 170,000 displaced persons from the Eastern Province have now returned to their villages in the Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts, and more returns are expected this year.

UNHCR notes there are still some 187,700 displaced since fighting escalated in April 2006. The agency is also working with the Government to find lasting solutions for some 312,000 people who have remained in a state of protracted displacement over 20 years.