Sri Lanka, a multi-ethnic developing country with a mid-year population of 20 million estimated in 2005 and some of the best health and educational indicators in the South Asian region [26] (link), has seen many instances of internal displacement, but these have been characteristically unpredictable and fluid, the main precipitants being the three decades of conflict and the 2004 Tsunami [27] .
The COMRAID cross-sectional survey was carried out in the first half of 2011 in the Kalpitiya division of Puttalam district, North-western province of Sri Lanka. Puttalam district, which has long had a majority Muslim population [28] , [29] , has been an accessible safe haven for a large number of IDPs due to its geographical closeness to conflict areas. The Kalpitiya division (a small peninsular landmass separated from the mainland by a lagoon) was selected for sampling as it had the largest concentration of IDPs within a relatively small geographic area. It is estimated that around 75,000 Muslims (a distinct minority ethnic group in Sri Lanka, whose religion is Islam, and language mainly Tamil) were displaced over a period of few days in 1990 from the northern regions. The majority (72%) were displaced from Mannar district of the Northern Province [28] . According to official sources, Puttalam district received around 15,000 of these internally displaced families (63,000 individuals), mainly arriving via the sea route, who were initially resettled in temporary shelters in the peninsula in 141 locations (mainly welfare centres) [30] , [31] .Figure 1 illustrates the displacement routes and resettlement areas of the northern Muslim IDPs.
Over a time span of 20 years in forced displacement, as the population numbers grew, a proportion of IDPs bought local land, establishing communities based on their pre-displacement communal orientations while others have lived in government welfare centres for the whole duration of displacement. Living circumstances and economic standards are similar across these different types of settlements, and some of the privately established communities in fact function as welfare centres. The 141 welfare camps in existence at the time of the survey were mostly situated in government land and had basic facilities, consisting of permanent, semi-permanent and temporary housing for IDP families numbering from less than hundred families to several hundred. Camps were overseen by a ‘camp officer’ (the village level administrative official) appointed by the government while civil society organizations such as mosque councils were also responsible for handling various communal affairs. The flight of northern Muslims has been well documented in sociological and anthropological studies [32] –[34] ; however, no study to date has investigated the mental health status of these IDPs, considered to be at high risk for developing psychopathology due to the nature of their displacement experience.
The COMRAID cross-sectional survey was carried out in the first half of 2011 in the Kalpitiya division of Puttalam district, North-western province of Sri Lanka. Puttalam district, which has long had a majority Muslim population [28] , [29] , has been an accessible safe haven for a large number of IDPs due to its geographical closeness to conflict areas. The Kalpitiya division (a small peninsular landmass separated from the mainland by a lagoon) was selected for sampling as it had the largest concentration of IDPs within a relatively small geographic area. It is estimated that around 75,000 Muslims (a distinct minority ethnic group in Sri Lanka, whose religion is Islam, and language mainly Tamil) were displaced over a period of few days in 1990 from the northern regions. The majority (72%) were displaced from Mannar district of the Northern Province [28] . According to official sources, Puttalam district received around 15,000 of these internally displaced families (63,000 individuals), mainly arriving via the sea route, who were initially resettled in temporary shelters in the peninsula in 141 locations (mainly welfare centres) [30] , [31] .
Over a time span of 20 years in forced displacement, as the population numbers grew, a proportion of IDPs bought local land, establishing communities based on their pre-displacement communal orientations while others have lived in government welfare centres for the whole duration of displacement. Living circumstances and economic standards are similar across these different types of settlements, and some of the privately established communities in fact function as welfare centres. The 141 welfare camps in existence at the time of the survey were mostly situated in government land and had basic facilities, consisting of permanent, semi-permanent and temporary housing for IDP families numbering from less than hundred families to several hundred. Camps were overseen by a ‘camp officer’ (the village level administrative official) appointed by the government while civil society organizations such as mosque councils were also responsible for handling various communal affairs. The flight of northern Muslims has been well documented in sociological and anthropological studies [32] –[34] ; however, no study to date has investigated the mental health status of these IDPs, considered to be at high risk for developing psychopathology due to the nature of their displacement experience.
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