Writing in the Red Flag, Ben Hillier, highlights the plight of the Biloela Tamil refugee family who have been detained for over three years in Australia as well thousand of Tamil refugees who face the threat of deportation and torture in Sri Lanka.

Government complicity

_{^{File photograph: YouTuber 'Sattai' Duraimurugan}}

Tamil Nadu’s Trichy police department arrested four Tamils for challenging a video posted earlier this month on social media, that showed former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran in a derogatory manner.

During parliamentary questions, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Edward Davey, and Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific, Stephen Kinnock, questioned Britain’s assessment of human rights in Sri Lanka and its continued military support.

A call for sanctions

^{Photograph: Tamil protestors in Colombo, 1956, shortly before they were attacked by Sinhala mobs. (Courtesy Victor Ivan)}

The EU parliament has passed a new resolution on Sri Lanka expressing “serious concern at the rapid deterioration of human rights” on the island and urging the Council to consider targeted sanctions against senior Sri Lanka officials accused of war crimes.

Former Northern Provincial Council member Durairasa Ravikaran called for Sri Lankan state forces to take accountability and impose sanctions on those who are repeatedly violating COVID-19 protocols by travelling from the South to the North-East.

Sri Lankan police officers have arrested individuals across Jaffna for allegedly “violating the travel ban” and interrogated for their purpose of travel.

A small Hindu temple on a street in Jaffna, near the A9 highway linking Jaffna and Kandy, was found destroyed on Tuesday morning.

Sri Lankan police have arrested ten people, including the provincial council’s deputy chairman for Puthukkudiyiruppu, Mullaitivu, following protests against the reopening of a garment factory amidst fears of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading. 

The Vavuniya campus of University of Jaffna has been converted into a separate state university and established as the "University of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka".   

The establishment was notified through a government extraordinary gazette signed by Sri Lankan Education Minister, Professor G.L. Peiris, yesterday. 

Dozens of activists and members of the Tamil community in Germany staged a protest outside a detention centre in Pforzheim, as German authorities deported an estimated 20-23 Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka despite the risk of persecution and torture that they face on the island.

Local Tamil activists alongside those from Amnesty International and other human rights organisations protesting outside the detention centre in an attempt to block the move for more than 70 hours. Despite this, the deportations took place yesterday.

Swiss Tamil activist group, “Phoenix - the Next Generation”, has spoken out against Switzerland’s proposed “Police Measures to Counter Terrorism” (PMT) which they warn will repress Tamil activists.