Sri Lanka's missing persons commission handling nearly 17,000 active cases

Sri Lanka's Office of Missing Persons is currently managing nearly 17,000 active cases of disappearances, with a total of over 23,000 cases in their database, according to the commission's chairman Mahesh Katulanda. The figures encompass disappearances connected to the country's prolonged military conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which concluded in 2009.

During an event to commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Katulanda highlighted that there are 16,966 active case files, after eliminating duplicates and individuals missing in action. Established in 2016, the Office of Missing Persons is a state body responsible for providing closure to affected victims and their relatives by determining the status of all missing individuals in Sri Lanka.

Each affected family receives a one-time payment of SLR 5000, which is not considered a compensation. So far, 9,072 families have been interviewed by the Office. The government has provided over SLR 375 million to facilitate these payments, as per Katulanda. The Office of Missing Persons investigates and traces people who have disappeared by examining the circumstances surrounding their disappearance, and also maintains a database of missing and disappeared persons.

Estimates suggest that around 20,000 people are missing following the end of the war with the LTTE, which resulted in over 100,000 deaths. There are also cases of armed conflicts involving the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna in the country's southern regions.