By Charles Haviland BBC News, Colombo

Some Sri Lankan Tamils have risked their lives to flee Sri Lanka

Registered Sri Lankan refugees living abroad stay in 64 countries, but the vast majority are in India.

Scattered across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are 115 refugee camps run by the Indian government and housing 70,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.

Another 32,000 live outside the camps. The Sri Lanka office of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says it helped just over 2,000 to return to Sri Lanka last year.

The figure is not high but it is more than twice the number that went back in 2009.

'A challenge'

Three thousand more came back of their own accord and then sought help from the agency in northern Sri Lanka.

	Sri Lankan refugees are registered with UNHCR in 64 countries

The area has been devastated by war and a UNHCR spokeswoman, Jennifer Pagonis, told the BBC that the return of Tamil refugees was "a challenge for everybody".

But most were being absorbed back into the lives of their friends or families - including some who had been away for many years, or their children.

Thanks to mobile phones, she said, the refugees can make properly informed decisions about whether to come.

A UNHCR office in India advises people to wait if their home areas aren’t yet resettled or demined.

The UN agency helps the returnees by supplying air tickets and, once they are back, emergency non-food items.

A few have come from other countries, including Malaysia. Until recently Sri Lankan refugees living abroad were far outnumbered by internally displaced people.

The camps housing the latter are shrinking as the IDPs are gradually resettled in their villages.