Families of Tamil workers in Kurdistan continued to express concern over the welfare of the men, who the families say are being held against their will and forced to work for Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamic State militants.

The families, many of whom reside in Pallaisuddi, Jaffna, have named 28 workers who they say remain in detention, and have been forced to carry out military activities, including the building of bunkers and fortifications and the unloading of arms.

“My son and many others are still in Kurdistan. They were not sent back with the other men, as the government claims," the mother of one of the men told Tamil Guardian, speaking anonymously for fear of her son's safety.

"He was beaten and hospitalised when he initially resisted. If they were well looked after as they claim, how does the government explain his injuries?” she added, stating that the men have only been in touch sporadically, calling in secret as they feared being beaten.

Satellite images show the Sri Lankan military has been consolidating its presence in the Tamil North-East of the island, increasing the number of permanent structures that it has built on land seized from Tamil civilians since the end of the armed conflict.

Images released by the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at the request of the Sri Lanka Campaign, show the Valikamam High Security Zone (HSZ), located in the Jaffna peninsula, has seen a dramatic rise in the number of structures that have been constructed inside it.

AAAS reports “there was a significant increase in structures between 2011 and 2014, with the total structure count rising by nearly 1,500 structures. The structure count includes all types of structures, including guard posts, military buildings, and individual, housing-sized structures.”

Three Tamil political detainees in Anuradhapuram Prison have been on hunger strike for 8 days, after ongoing mistreatment by Sinhala inmates, a source close to the family of one of the men told the Tamil Guardian.

The source said Sinhala prisoners have been physically attacking and verbally abusing them, and have also taken their food portions on a near daily basis, adding that the Tamils have now been refusing to eat for 8 days, demanding to be transferred back to their original wing.

An Australian High Court is to hold a special hearing in October over the detention of asylum seekers at sea.

The legal team representing 157 Tamil asylum seekers who were held at sea for over 4 weeks and then brought to a detention centre in Western Australia before being transferred to Nauru, have challenged the legality of such a detention.

The hearing has been set for October 14 and 15 by Justice Kenneth Hayne.

“What Australia does on the high seas does affect international law and the approach of other countries,” George Newhouse, a lawyer for the asylum seekers told the Guardian.

The TNA’s Selvam Adaikkalanathan said that the continued settling of Sinhalese in Tamil areas is intended to destroy the Tamil nation.

The MP said that Sinhala families are being settled in many Tamil villages in Vavuniya and that these government-assisted activities are intended to change the demographic make-up of the local population, accusing the government of only looking to benefit their own community, the Uthayan reported.

The Sri Lankan government has borrowed $2.6 billion from China’s state-owned Exim Bank, between 2009 and 2013, reports Ceylon Today.

Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Sarath Amunugama said in parliament yesterday that the money was used for various development projects on the island, including Hambantota Port, Katunayake Expressway, Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, Railway projects, Northern Province electricity and road development projects, Southern Expressway and electricity projects in the Uva and Eastern Provinces.

Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva Ravinath Ariyasinha has highlighted the Tamil diaspora as a potent danger to the country and accused western countries of turning a blind eye to their activities.

“While we have defeated the LTTE in Sri Lanka, the organization, its ideology and its operations are very much alive in a number of western countries. Immediately, this remains a challenge to speeding up the pace of reconciliation in Sri Lanka, and eventually, a potent danger to Sri Lanka as a rising nation,” Aryasinha said while speaking at the Sri Lankan Army’s Defence Seminar 2014.

“Even as most countries have acted with understanding and have respectfully shared concerns and been able to contribute to the processes of reconciliation in a tangible manner, unfortunately particularly a few Western countries fuelled by political motivations and electoral compulsions have continued to relentlessly pursue Sri Lanka," he added.