Tamils gathered in front of the Home Office, today, demanding an end to the deportation of Tamil asylum seekers. 

The protest follows news that a Tamil student in London has been refused asylum and may be subject to administrative removal.
 

Students at the University of Jaffna held a vigil in memory of two of their peers who were shot dead by Sri Lankan police three years ago.

Media faculty students Nadarajah Kajan and Vijayakumar Sulaxan were shot dead as they were on their way home on a motorbike by Jaffna police officers in Kokkuvil on October 20, 2016, sparking protests across the North-East, further around the island and internationally.

Sri Lanka's upcoming presidential election may bring a new face to power, but concerns remain from Tamils on the island and around the world that their plight may remain unchanged.

Memorial services for the slain Tamil journalist, Mylvaganam Nimalarajan, was held in Vavuniya, Batticaloa and Jaffna, on the 19th anniversary of his death. 

The event in Vavuniya was attended by the families of the disappeared who have continued their protests across the North-East. Current journalists in Jaffna and Batticaloa also held vigils for their slain colleague.

The vigil in Batticaloa was attended by the mayor of the city and other politicians.

In response to the retrial of Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, which will be adjourned by the 19 November, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry has defended the Brigadier, maintaining that under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961, he is entitled to diplomatic immunity.
 

Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya protested on Wednesday, condemning presidential candidate and former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s denial of hundreds of cases of disappearances of surrendered Tamils from the end of the war.

Staging a rally at their roadside spot in Vavuniya town where they have been for over 970 days, families of the disappeared slammed the “various opinions that have been expressed with the aim of sabotaging [our] struggle in the run-up to the presidential election”.

Mangala Samaraweera, Sri Lanka’s finance minister and leading UNP member, called on Sri Lankan voters to reject Gotabaya Rajapaksa and warned that Sri Lankan soldiers may face prosecutions abroad through universal jurisdiction cases if “a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism” is not enacted.