Almost a million Hill Country Tamils were made stateless by the Citizenship Act enacted in 1948. Under the Indo-Ceylon Agreements of 1964 and 1974, India granted citizenship to 506,000 people and Sri Lanka recognized 375,000 as her citizens. Some 461,000 were repatriated to India between 1968 and 1983. The remaining stateless persons were recognized as Sri Lankan citizens under two laws introduced in 1986 and 1988. The Hill Country political parties argue that applications for Indian citizenship were made 35 years ago and many of the applicants have died. Their descendants look upon Sri Lanka as their home and are unwilling to go to India.
Earlier, the CWC proposed that Sri Lanka should recognize these people as her citizens and India should grant citizenship to Hill Country Tamils who fled to India in the wake of violence since 1983. India has maintained that this would be contrary to her citizenship laws. Suggestions have been made that this issue should be included in the agenda for peace talks in Thailand.