Rameswaram: There is a sudden increase in the arrival of Sri Lankan refugees here in the past few days following the volatile situation in the island nation.

On Wednesday alone, 54 refugees, belonging to 15 families, reached Rameswaram through three separate boats.

This is the highest number in recent months.

While the first batch, consisting of 17 members including 4 children and 6 women, landed at Arichalmunai in Dhanushkodi, another batch of 21 refugees including 5 children and 8 women arrived at Sankumal shore.

Yet another group of 16 members reached the Serankottai shore in the early hours.

Most of them could bring nothing except a few bags of clothes.

Some children, who were studying in various schools Trincomalee, brought one or two books with them.

They hail from Thirukudalur in Trincomalee, which has been witnessing violence between the Sri Lankan Navy and LTTE.

Day of relief

"This is definitely a day of relief for me. I hope I will lead a peaceful life here [India]. I can count the days, when I could not hear the sound of bomb or gun battle in my surroundings in Trincomalee during the last four months. We cannot go out freely on the streets or meet our friends and relatives because of questioning from the Army men," says 64-year-old Jeevarathinam.

"We struggled a lot to meet our needs, as the Navy prohibited the people from venturing into the sea or going to farms and seasonal occupations following the escalated violence in Trincomalee area. The Navy personnel harassed us whenever or wherever they came across bomb explosion," said Jayakumar (31). More likely to come

The entire population of Thirukadalur is lined up along the Thalaimannar coast to come India.

Depending upon the availability of boats, they will reach Tamil Nadu in the next few days, they said.

So far, 915 refugees have arrived since January.

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