The death of a Tamil asylum seeker from coronavirus last week has highlighted criticism of Britain’s immigration policy towards migrants in the country, including those who have been fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka.

Alakaratnam Jeevithan, an asylum seeker from Jaffna, came to the UK ten years ago as he fled Sri Lankan state repression. Yet despite being in Britain for over a decade, his asylum claim was never fully accepted and he had continued to fight legal battles until his death from coronavirus at a London hospital last week.

Today marks the first Easter Sunday since the suicide bomb attacks last year that killed 359 people and injured 500 more, in a series of explosions targeting churches and luxury hotels.

Updated 2220 GMT

A British Tamil doctor who was working on the frontlines of the country’s National Health Service has passed away after contracting coronavirus.

Dr Anton Sebastianpillai, a consultant geriatrician at Kingston Hospital, passed away on the weekend at the hospital’s intensive care unit. His final shift at the hospital had been on March 20.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began a number of countries around the world have released thousands of prisoners in order to stem a possible spread of the virus within prisons. According to public health experts, prisons are a ripe place for the spread of COVID-19 due to the close contact between prisoners, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

A Sri Lankan soldier who was sentenced to death over the massacre of eight Tamil civilians, including children, has received a presidential pardon and been released home.

As coronavirus cases escalate across the island, hospitals and clinics across the North-East are bracing themselves for any potential outbreak, with many concerned at Colombo’s militarised and ‘politicised’ strategy.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to the Tamil Guardian, one local clinician warned that systemic racism within Sri Lankan state institutions is risking lives.

The Sri Lankan military has begun quarantining foreign arrivals in detention centres hundreds of miles away from Colombo and in the Tamil North-East, as part of moves to tackle the spread of the coronavirus despite public health concerns and Tamil opposition.

In Vavuniya, the Sri Lankan army began quarantining arrivals from abroad by sending them to the Pampaimadu Army Camp.

The US State Department’s 2019 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka highlighted a range of concerns this week, from unlawful killings and torture by government agents to the unjustified arrests of journalists and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons.

Amongst the issues raised by the State Department was the harassment of Tamil journalists in the North-East, including of Tamil Guardian correspondents. 

The US Supreme Court heard a landmark case brought by a Tamil asylum seeker this month, which could have wide-reaching implications for Washington’s fast-tracked immigration and deportation processes.

Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, a Tamil asylum seeker who reached the United States via a gruelling eight-month journey through South and Central America, was arrested just 25 yards north of the US-Mexican border and placed in expedited removal proceedings which deemed he could be deported to Sri Lanka. After years in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, his challenge of a particularly arbitrary US immigration policy has now reached the highest court in the federal judiciary.

“Tensions among ethnic and religious communities persist” the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief said in his report.

“Significant gaps exist particularly in upholding accountability and access to justice as well as ensuring non-recurrence of human rights violations,” the report added.

Ahmed Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur, conducted his country visit to Sri Lanka 15 August to 26 August 2019.