Many children have been forced to flee with relatives while their parents remain trapped in the conflict zone, where the movement of civilians is still restricted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

But, shockingly, the vast majority of unaccompanied children, all under the age of 16, are becoming separated from their families in the crowds of displaced people as they enter government controlled areas, and as they arrive at the over-crowded camps. 

“The camps are chaotic,” said Save the Children’s acting Country Director in Sri Lanka, Branko Golubovic. “These children are coming out of combat areas where they have been severely traumatised, only to find themselves in yet another harsh environment in the camps. Many of them are malnourished and most have witnessed horrific events. Being removed from the support of their families at this point will have serious long-term consequences for their overall development.”

 A recent survey of 100 shelters found that 72% of families had been separated and lost each other. Save the Children warns the number of children parted from one or both parents will have risen dramatically in the past few weeks when there was an influx of displaced persons fleeing Vanni, a district in the north-east affected by the fighting. 

Around 196,000 people have escaped the LTTE-controlled area since the beginning of the year, at least 40% of whom are children. The majority arrived in the past three weeks.

 The Sri Lankan government estimates a further 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the three-square kilometre conflict zone. Save the Children expects 20,000 of those people still trapped will escape and arrive in the hugely overcrowded camps by the end of the week.

The Sri Lankan government, responsible for the registration of displaced people, estimates it will be at least six weeks until the process of reuniting separated families can begin.

In the meantime, thousands of vulnerable, unaccompanied children are relying on the ad hoc systems put in place by aid organisations, including Save the Children, which is attempting to reunite desperate parents with their missing children. “While they are few and far between, we have had rare success stories,” Golubovic said.

Save the Children, which has more than 30 years’ experience of working in Sri Lanka, is providing tens of thousands of children and their families with clothes, supplementary food for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers, and has set up temporary learning facilities. It is also running ‘child-friendly spaces’ to give children somewhere safe to play and to help them forget what they have experienced.