Days after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a tough new resolution on Sri Lanka, the island nation has announced a 100 percent increase in compensation paid to relatives of missing persons citing high inflation.
Cabinet spokesman Minister Bandula Gunawardena said on Tuesday October 11 that a proposal by Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to increase the compensation was approved by the cabinet of ministers at Monday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
A statement from the government information department said that it had been previously decided in March 2022 that a 100,000 rupees should be paid as compensation to close relatives of missing persons based on the certificate of missing issued by the Registrar Genera.
The decision to double the amount was made after taking into account the long time it took to obtain the certificate and the insufficiency of 100,000 rupees.
Minister Rajapakshe has also proposed that the requirement of obtaining the certificate of missing be ignored if the compensation secretariat has confirmed that the relevant person is missing, the statement said.