Several events were held across the North-East this week to mark 41 years since the Welikada massacre, in which 53 Tamil political prisoners were murdered by Sinhala inmates and prison guards.

The massacre took place during the Black July pogrom of 1983.

Mannar

Tamil Families of the Disappeared staged a protest in Mannar rejecting payments from the Sri Lankan government-run Office of Missing Persons (OMP), stating that the lives of their children were worth more than the US$660 on offer.

Sri Lanka’s Labour and Foreign Employment Minister says he discussed with the visiting Israeli ambassador to vet and recruit Sri Lankan workers for its agriculture sector.

^{File photograph: Israeli Defense Force, 2021.}

Nanayakkara said Sri Lanka had sent unskilled workers, without any training, to Israel in the first batch, since the state had an urgent need for workers at the time.

A new organization, called the North-East Young Fishermen's Association, has been launched in Jaffna this week, with Tamil youth from across the North-East uniting to voice their concerns, formulate policies and advance the rights of fishermen across the homeland.

The association was initiated with the guidance of Mannar Social and Economic Development Organization (MSEDO) with youth from all seven districts attending the event.

Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has summoned the leader of the Tamil families of the disappeared in Batticaloa as surveillance of Tamil activists continues in the North-East.