Mandapam Camp was built in the early 1900s by the British Government to house migrant plantation workers coming to India from Sri Lanka.
Many Tamils left Sri Lanka and sought refugee status in places like Canada and the United Kingdom.
With nowhere else to go, these people left Sri Lanka by boat from the northern town of Mannar, (18 km from the Indian coast) and arrived in Mandapam, India.
According to http://www.adeptasia.org/ upon their arrival in India, the refugees are taken to the police station, quarantined and interrogated for 72 hours, before being offered shelter at camps.
At Mandapam camp, residents are given a small stipend and rations: adults are allotted 500g of rice per day, children 400g.