File photograph: Eelam refugees in Tamil Nadu, 2012. Courtesy EC/ECHO Arjun Claire

Eelam Tamil refugees who fled to India before 2015 have been exempted from prosecution under India’s new immigration law, but remain barred from applying for long-term visas or citizenship, leaving more than 90,000 in Tamil Nadu in continued legal limbo.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order on September 2 under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, exempting “registered Sri Lankan Tamil nationals who have taken shelter in India up to the 9th January, 2015” from penal provisions that would otherwise criminalise their stay for lacking valid passports, travel documents, or visas, according to a report in The Hindu.

The exemption means those registered refugees will not be treated as “illegal migrants” under the new law, which imposes penalties of up to five years’ imprisonment or fines of ₹5 lakh for undocumented foreigners.

However, unlike undocumented migrants from six non-Muslim minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who were also exempted and granted eligibility to apply for long-term visas (LTVs), a precursor to Indian citizenship, Eelam Tamils remain excluded from that pathway.

A senior government official confirmed to The Hindu that “Sri Lankan Tamils are not eligible to apply for LTVs,” though they could technically seek citizenship through naturalisation under the Citizenship Act, 1955. Yet a still-operative 1986 directive from the Home Ministry explicitly bars the naturalisation of Sri Lankan refugees who arrived after July 1983.

The exclusion highlights India’s double standard. While the September 2 order effectively opens a backdoor to citizenship for Afghan, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi minorities, it leaves Eelam Tamils, who make up one of the largest protracted refugee populations in the country, with no clear route to permanent settlement.

Human rights activist Antony Arulraj noted that the 2015 cut-off date “makes India a safe haven for Sri Lankan Tamils who took refuge before 2015… [it] protects them from forced expulsion or deportation.” But he stressed that the inability to secure LTVs means refugees remain trapped in uncertainty.

An advisory committee set up by the Tamil Nadu government had in 2023 recommended issuing LTVs to Sri Lankan Tamils to make them eligible for citizenship. Yet New Delhi has ignored those calls.

According to official figures, more than 304,000 Sri Lankan Tamils fled to India between July 1983 and August 2012, largely escaping pogroms and years of the armed conflict. As of June 2024, around 90,603 refugees remain in 105 camps and other settlements across Tamil Nadu, with no durable solution in sight.

India’s refugee policy has long been shaped by the aim of eventual “repatriation” to Sri Lanka, despite decades of persecution, militarisation, and systemic discrimination against Tamils on the island. While India’s latest order shields pre-2015 arrivals from immediate prosecution, it once again stops short of recognising their rights or offering a meaningful path to belonging.