Joan Ryan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Joan Ryan on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effects of the steps the government of Sri Lanka has taken to return land currently controlled by the military to civilians.

Mr Hugo Swire

Since President Sirisena came to power in January 2015, there have been welcome moves to return some military occupied private land to civilians. However, much remains to be done.

We continue to encourage further land returns, a process the UK is contributing to through our support for demining in the north of the country. During my visit to Sri Lanka on 14 to 17 January I met with resettled families in the north seeing for myself the progress that has been made as well as the challenges that remain.