The Sri Lankan ethnic crisis took a violent turn in July 1983. Thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils started fleeing their country and took refuge on the Indian soil. On humanitarian grounds India gave them shelter, food, clothing and all other facilities, and also made prolonged efforts to mediate between warring factions and the Sri Lankan government for a political solution. This eventually resulted in the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord. As per the agreement, India started repatriating Sri Lankan refugees back to their soil as normalcy prevailed.