Up Country Tamils: Charting a New Future in Sri Lanka security, dropout of schools and early marriage due to multiple displacements. “55 families were displaced to Batticaloa in 1983, and then some families were again displaced to Trincomalee due to the war. After some time they came back to Batticaloa” – Woman displaced from Welimada during 1983 riots). Temporary Relocation Up-country Tamil men and women have also travelled all over the country searching for job opportunities. According to the interviews and the secondary data, young women who relocated to urban areas for employment purposes during the ethnic conflict faced sudden identity checks at boarding places and workplaces by the police, difficulties in finding boarding places, especially in Colombo as the landlord/landlady were fearful of Tamil tenants, and the impossibility of late night travel because of the fear of arrest. The tenants had to give their personal information before they took residence in their boarding place, as it was a compulsory requirement of the police. The landlord had to collect and provide this information, and they did not like to accommodate Tamil women, who were feared to be LTTE suicide cadre. Communication was another issue when police officers made an inquiry. The police officers could not speak or understand Tamil, and vice versa, some Up-country Tamil women could not communicate in Sinhala. This had raised police officers’ suspicions of the place of origin of these women, leading to their wrongful arrest. According to the interviewees, they faced discrimination in the workplace if they were monolingual Tamil-speakers and 74