Chennai: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Chief of Mission Lennart Kotsalainen today (Sep 25, 2004) expressed the hope that India would speed up the process of enacting a national legislation for dealing with refugees in the country.

The UNCHR (United Nations Commission for Human Rights) had been bringing up the issue of a national legislation that would be in conformity with the 1951 UN convention on refugees, during its various meetings with Indian representatives, he told reporters in Chennai.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 convention. Following one such meeting in 2002, the National Human Rights Commission had appointed a committee to go into it.

"The process is slow, we would like to see it moving faster," he said.

On the return of Sri Lankan refugees in India, he said while a vast majority of refugees would like to return to the island nation, the situation there was not yet conducive for them to go back.

"Our impression is that a large majority want to return if the situation is conducive enough. Even now a minority want to return. There is a movement back (to Sri Lanka) and the Sri Lankan Government had helped the return of 12,000 (of a total 1.5 lakh) refugees, including 2500 sent by UNCHR," he said.

Asked about the handling of refugees in India, he said UNCHR felt that India was always ready to open its borders for refugee movement.

However, the UNCHR would like to see 'some harmonization' to deal with various smaller refugee groups like those from Afghanistan and Myanmar, he said.