Interview/Ziggy Garewal, country director, MAG (Mines Advisory Group), Sri Lanka
Q: How does MAG's operation in Sri Lanka compare to its operations in other countries?
A: MAG Sri Lanka used to be one of the bigger operations. Now there are a couple of countries like Iraq and Ukraine that have dominated the landscape. But it is still one of the larger operations in the region—number three after Laos and Vietnam. We are on the higher side. We have about six or seven donors, including donor countries like Japan, Australia, the United States of America and Switzerland, apart from other donors as well.
Q: Can you explain your workforce strength and how many teams you have on the ground? What areas do you cover?
A: We have around 725 to 730 staff altogether, and about 24 per cent of those are women. We are working in the north, the north central, and east side of the country. MAG has the largest footprint in terms of demining because we are also covering the east. The other four operators like DASH, The HALO Trust and SHARP are mainly based in the north.
Q: With major humanitarian funding being diverted towards active conflicts worldwide, what is the donor scenario for MAG in Sri Lanka?
A: Donors in Sri Lanka are very committed. So even though the funding might go down, we are still confident that many of them want to stay till the end. They have been funding since 2002-2003, so even though the funding might be decreasing, there is a commitment to supporting Sri Lanka with demining until the end.
But certainly, with all of these new priorities, we have seen many of our donors reducing the amounts of funds. There is also a perception that Sri Lanka is not so much of a priority since there is no active conflict or political unrest. But certainly, I think that the donors who are funding demining are very committed to that. So they will most probably stay on, but the amounts will go down.
The UK, for example—a lot of the funding is spent on supporting refugees and internally displaced people in other countries. Now they also want to use that money to house refugees in the UK. So it is not just going to defence but other types of things. Redirecting the funds can also affect us here.
Q: Sri Lanka has set a goal to be a mine-free country by 2028. How realistic is this target?
A: It is not realistic, and even the Sri Lankan government is aware of it. They are going to apply for an extension to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention Article 5, where they are allowed to increase the timeline for completion. We think maybe another six or seven years are needed to clear, as long as the funding stays stable and we do not find new contaminated areas. So given these two conditions, we feel we might complete by 2030 or 2031. But if we are still going to find new contaminated areas with decreased funding, the number of teams on the ground will obviously reduce, then it will be hard to predict when it will be completed. Just to give you an example, at the end of 2023 we had 45 teams. Today we have 30. In the course of 18 months, we have reduced by 30 per cent. Now if we are taking that kind of hit for the next two or three years, then it is going to be very hard to predict.
Q: Who are your deminers and what will happen to them after mine clearance in Sri Lanka is completed?
A: More than 95 per cent of our deminers are locally recruited from the north and the east. Many of them are survivors of the conflict or ex-combatants with the LTTE. The war only finished 15 years ago. So many of them who are in their 30s were living in Internally Displaced Persons camps. One of them was telling me he had moved six times as a young child before his family settled down in Batticaloa.
So everyone has their story linked to the conflict. One of the main things about MAG is we recruit people locally so they can also solve their own problem by doing the demining.
We have even got ex-army people working with us. We find that now the relationship between them is more cordial—it's better. Obviously, as time goes on, people get over some of the harshness of the conflict. We find they are all working together. What is concerning us is what happens to these staff after either the demining mission is completed or funding is finished and you have to make some of your staff redundant.
There are around 2,500 deminers for whom we have provided alternative livelihoods for many years. What happens after this is stopped? So all of the operators are working on a training programme that will enable deminers to gain more skills and certifications so that when they go out into the world after they finish the demining, they might be able to find jobs more easily and manage their livelihoods more easily.
Q: What kind of coordination do you have with the Sri Lankan government, and what further cooperation or concessions are you looking for?
A: We have very good cooperation. We come under the supervision of the National Mine Action Centre, so our relationship is very good. We have a memorandum of understanding which we sign each year. We are also registered under the NGO Secretariat. So that is a different route in terms of compliance for us. But our relationship with the National Mine Action Centre and the Regional Mine Action Office is very good.
Q: What coordination do you have with other government departments? Does the NMAC facilitate this for you? Are you seeking any new concessions, such as for importing vehicles?
A: We do have coordination with government departments. One of the key things is import duty exemptions. We have a very old vehicle fleet. We are also paying a fortune for rental vehicles, which are not very good quality any more because they are old. So we have been in discussions with the National Mine Action Centre to try and get exemptions. The idea is that we will import new vehicles—currently the import duty is 300 per cent. We are saying we will bring them in and we will use them as ambulances.
And then in five or six years when we finish, we will donate them to the Ministry of Public Health. So if the government is willing to do that and the Ministry of Public Health is willing to receive it, then maybe they can consider giving us exemptions. We also work with the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing quite closely to see how many people are being resettled onto land that has been released. We are planning to work with the Ministry of Education to support all the staff training that we are doing. We conduct a number of courses for our staff at the university. We have agreements with Eastern University and University of Vavuniya.
Q: What are the advantages for a country that joins the Mine Ban Treaty, particularly in terms of financial assistance?
A: Not really. What it does do is encourage the other state parties who are either signatories themselves or actively promoting the treaty to support Sri Lanka in achieving its objectives. But as far as I am aware, the convention itself does not give you rights to a certain type of assistance.
Q: What practices and corporate policies are unique to MAG compared to other mine action partners in Sri Lanka?
A: One of our main corporate policies is staff transition—the exit strategy. What will happen to the deminers after completion of demining? So this is something that is a MAG-driven policy to make sure that we create alternative livelihoods. Many donors are also asking us for an exit strategy. Then there is also equality, diversity, and inclusivity.
Q: What operational challenges are your teams facing in the field, whether environmental or logistical?
A: Given the scale that MAG is working at here, we have urgent operational challenges. We work from the northernmost point to the southernmost point, so we have to move people right across that area. That is a major challenge. As I mentioned earlier, the equipment and the vehicles are all getting quite old. That has become a major challenge for us.
The other operational challenge is that we are also finding new areas all the time. MAG has 8.5 square kilometres of contaminated land allocated to clear, which is quite a big area considering the time and precision needed for humanitarian demining.
Q: Do you think the falling number of mine accidents—both civilian and deminer—in Sri Lanka is due to training and risk education in contaminated areas?
A: Yes. The training obviously helps, and the risk education too. But also, if you go up to the north, you see how visible we are. Everybody knows there are mines. If you come to the south of Sri Lanka, people do not even know there are mines in the country, let alone the training. Us being around in the area creates a lot of awareness. We also talk to the communities, explaining to them the danger, and all our signage means people have over the years understood the risk.
At the risk education sessions, we demonstrate how mines look. We are looking at more digital risk education methods using SMS and photographs.
So I think it is a combination of the education and training, but also just the general awareness of the public in that part of the country.
Q: How will a mine-free Sri Lanka benefit the country beyond fulfilling the Mine Ban Treaty commitment?
A: First, a large number of people are able to return. NMAC is saying that nearly one million people have been able to resettle on their original land. There are agricultural benefits—a lot of land cleared is agricultural land, so people are able to go and farm. This is very important now because of the lack of jobs in the north due to the economic crisis.
Then people have access to schools, clinics and hospitals. Before clearance, they were not able to access the national parks. Now we can open up the national parks as well once they have been cleared, along with tourist sites and pilgrimage sites. Take Anuradhapura—it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That district will be cleared very soon. So that means it can be opened up. You do not have to worry that tourists and pilgrims might run into something.
So there are many reasons apart from the Mine Ban Treaty commitments which will benefit Sri Lanka.
Tourism is huge. You come in tourist season here and you see how overcrowded the south and the west of the country are. But the rest of the country has equally beautiful beaches, forest areas, and national parks. So really the idea is to be able to extend the kind of land that people can go to as tourists. Think of developing Trincomalee and Batticaloa as major tourist destinations when it is announced mine free.