Tamils in Vavuniya complained that the Motor Traffic Department office in the city continues to be staffed by officials who speak Sinhala only, leaving many local residents frustrated.
With a lack of Tamil speaking staff, or policies in place, locals face severe difficulties with routine tasks such as renewing driving licenses and other services.
Despite repeated complaints, including from local politicians, Sinhala only services remain in place across the North-East.
Tamils have frequently complained about the lack of official Tamil language services in Sri Lanka, despite claims by the government that Tamil is recognised as an official language. Across the Tamil homeland, Sri Lankan police stations are manned mostly by Sinhala officers with difficulty in accessing Tamil language services.
The issue was highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, who visited Sri Lanka last year.
“Despite the fact that Sinhala and Tamil are official languages of Sri Lanka, I have been informed that Tamil workers are often not able to report instances of abuses to the authorities such as the Police, as many Police officers only speak Sinhala and force them to file complaints in Sinhala,” said Tomoya Obokata. “This has been reported from various parts of the country."
