Sri Lanka : refugee camp 1

After the tsunami 2004, the Sri Lankan army gathered survivors of totally devasted areas in temporary camps settled by non govermental organizations close to the capital, Colombo. Two weeks after the tsunami, this government forbade adoption, even from Sri Lankans couples, in order to prevent sexual tourism. Almost two years after, one thousand people live ressourceless in wooden hutments and share a single tap in this camp located 1 km south of Colombo. Four hundred of them are children and orphans abandoned to themselves, suffering from malnutrition and poor hygiene. In spite of receiving more than 130 million euros of international subsidies, the Sri Lankan government has not done anything so far for these people, except moving them hundreds of kilometers away from their village.

Some of these kids are also suffering from psychological trauma and do not speak neither communicate at all. Many of these abandoned children, without any security nor protection, are kidnapped and then forced to be child soldiers by the LTTE rebels leading the civil war against the goverment in the north of the country (summer 2006).

Canon EOS 50, 28mm, f/4,5, good old Kodak Tmax 100, scan from a print.

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