Thousands of families in the Mannar district have been seriously impacted by the travel ban, with daily wage labourers being particularly affected over the last few weeks.

Families have been left with no choice but to meet their food needs and combat the economic impact of the strictly imposed measures by digging and selling clams from the coastal area.

Tamil Nadu politicians expressed their solidarity with Arputham Ammal, the mother of A.G. Periarivalan, who has spent over 31 years imprisoned for his alleged role in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

On 11 June 2021, a social media campaign started demanding his release and marking 31 years since he was initially imprisoned.

Ahnaf Jazeem

Nine European human rights ambassadors have called on the Sri Lankan government to immediately release Ahnaf Jazeem, a detained poet and teacher, or uphold his right to a fair trial. 

Ahnaf Jazeem, was detained on May 16, 2020, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), over unsubstantiated claims that his book of Tamil language poems, titles Navarasam contained extremist messaging. 

US-based advocacy organisation, People for Equality and Relief Lanka have slammed Sri Lanka’s attacks on Tamil American’s as “terrorist sympathisers” following the introduction of a resolution into the US Congress calling for an “international mechanism for accountability”.

We "wholly rejects the false assertion from the Sri Lankan state that Tamil Americans, exercising their constitutional rights in advocating for human rights, are 'terrorist sympathisers’”, stated PEARL.

They further added:

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.

The detained individuals include journalist and Youtuber ‘Sattai’ Duraimurugan, Naam Tamil Katchi (NTK) member Vinoth, political campaigner Saravanan and another man named Santhosh.  

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)}

This week marks 65 years since Sri Lanka’s first anti-Tamil pogroms, when government backed Sinhala mobs murdered more than 150 Tamils across the island – the first of many massacres that were to take place in the decades to come.

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.

The resolution also calls on the Council to investigate and prosecute war crime abuses; to suspend funding for the training of Sri Lanka’s security forces; and to suspend the favourable trading preferences granted by the GSP+ agreement.