Sri Lanka’s OMP compiles 23,352 verified missing list
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Office on Missing Persons (OMP) says it has consolidated thousands of duplicate records to compile a verified list of 23,352 missing individuals, eight years after the state mechanism was established to resolve cases of enforced disappearances.
OMP Chairman Mahesh Katulanda told reporters the office initially absorbed around 42,000 complaints from past presidential commissions, UN agencies, and international organizations like the ICRC.
However, many families had filed multiple complaints across different institutions, while historical manual record-keeping, compounded by the lack of National Identity Cards (NICs) during past conflicts, created severe tracking challenges.
Through manual verification and direct engagement, officials have now streamlined the records into a database of 23,352 entries.
“Our primary challenge was to properly verify these complaints and identify duplicate or multiple entries for the same individual, as well as duplicated records,” Katulanda said, adding, “That was a major challenge because, at that time, we did not have a centralized database”.
The list includes 16,966 active cases involving civilians, alongside a separate category for missing military and police personnel.
To carry out primary inquiries, OMP officials had met face-to-face with 9,072 families across the island, while the government has disbursed one-time interim relief payments to more than 5,700 families so far, with recommendations submitted for over 2,000 more.
Katulanda said the Cabinet recently allocated 375 million rupees to facilitate outreach to families, adding that the Ministry of Justice and National Integration has also authorized the OMP to recruit 69 additional staff members, including legal officers, tracing investigators, psycho-social support personnel, and administrative workers to speed up operations.
By the end of this year, the OMP aims to expand its reach to cover 13,000 to 14,000 families across the country, Katulanda said, noting that people who once engaged in street protests to express their grief and pain have now joined hands with them.
“We are moving forward together to discover the fate of their loved ones, making significant and fair progress.”
The OMP plans to hold a main commemoration event for the upcoming International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 25 in Jaffna, followed by regional events across the Northern, Eastern, and Southern provinces.
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