Introduction more appear to have been repatriated in 2019, with the majority being women and children. Many of those who have opted for repatriation have done so in the absence of a route for seeking asylum in Pakistan, the country where most have lived their entire lives and continue to call home. Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s population of 21 million is dominated by the Sinhala community, which makes up 75 per cent of the population. The next two largest ethnic groups are Sri Lankan Tamils at 11 per cent and Sri Lankan Moors (Muslims) at 9.3 per cent. Buddhism is the predominant religion with 70 per cent of the population while followers of Hinduism and Islam make up 12.6 per cent and 9.6 per cent respectively, and Roman Catholic and other Christian denominations make up 7.6 per cent. Sub-sects and denominations within these predominant religious identities also have smaller communities in the country, such as the Sufi, Ahmadiya, Evangelicals, Methodists and so on. Indian Tamils, or ‘Up-Country Tamils’, make up 4 per cent of the population. They became the primary ‘stateless’ population in post-independence Sri Lanka, after the enactment of the Citizenship Act of 1948, which denied them citizenship rights. Subsequent legislation granted them citizenship rights but this community remains one of the most marginalised in Sri Lanka with many challenges to accessing basic government services and socio-economic rights. The 30-year civil war between the Sri Lankan state and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was predicated on strong ethnic, land and language politics that continue to be a source of tension in the island. The post-war period since 2009 has also been marked by incidents of religious violence, predominantly between majority and minority communities, but also between minority communities. Following the end of the civil war, the occurrence of prolonged and systematic attacks, human rights violations and discrimination against religious minorities was brought into sharper focus. There has been a notable increase in both incidents of violence as well as systematic discrimination and harassment of minority religious communities, often coupled with xliii