This archive documents one of the most traumatic episodes of Sri Lanka’s contemporary history: the forcible expulsion of almost the entire Muslim population from the Northern Province by the LTTE in October 1990. Given only hours or days to leave, families were driven out without the right to carry valuables or essential documents, dispersing along land routes to Anuradhapura and Kurunegala or by sea from Mannar to the northwestern coast of Puttalam, where many remain displaced to this day. The collection captures the immediate aftermath of this mass displacement, preserving the lived realities of communities uprooted from Jaffna, Mannar, and other northern areas and forced into prolonged exile far from their homes.

At the heart of the archive are more than 7,000 household surveys conducted in February 1991, just three months after the eviction, under the leadership of Dr. S.H. Hasbullah of the University of Peradeniya, with the assistance of displaced undergraduates, academics, and community volunteers. Compiled across Puttalam, Anuradhapura, and Kurunegala, the Tamil-language surveys record detailed family information, former villages, livelihoods, economic losses, educational backgrounds, political aspirations, and experiences of expulsion. Originally assembled for reasons of documentation and advocacy, the collection is now fully digitized, publicly accessible, and jointly safeguarded by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo and the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, where the original materials have been preserved since 2024.


please access the reports from this link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_JQSj72L0piFlGVsTbSMq6eYwLG8t4jv?usp=sharing