A senior Sri Lankan official sparked outrage after he claimed that the dozens of journalists who had been murdered on the island were “third class ones”, in comments made to reporters at a press briefing last week.

The three-year-old daughter of a Tamil refugee family, Tharnicaa, was medically evacuated to a hospital in Perth, Australia, after being denied treatment by detention centre staff at Christmas Island.

As COVID-19 infections surge in Sri Lanka, Jaffna Teach Hospital has issued an urgent request for Medical Equipment noting the need to establish High Dependency Units (HDUs) for the management of seriously ill coronavirus patients.

A Tamil mother, who has spent over a decade searching for her forcibly disappeared son, has died from cancer today. 

Thevakiamma, has been demanding to know the whereabouts of her son, Senchudar, who was forcibly disappeared in Mullivaikkal in 2009. 

The Vavuniya Association of Disappeared Persons expressed their condolences and highlighted that Thevakiamma had been denied justice and died before getting answers regarding the whereabouts of her forcibly disappeared son. 

Tamils in Germany protested against the planned deportation of Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka, despite ongoing reports of torture and human rights abuses. 

Over the last few days, 14 Tamil refugees have been in arrested and detained at a detention centre in Pforzheim. Today, over 50 Tamils protested outside the detention centre, calling for the Tamils to be released and the deportations to be stopped. 

Valikamam Pradeshiya Sabha chairman, Thiyagarajah Nirosh, was blocked from commemorating Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran, the first Tamil to die in the armed struggle for liberation. 

Nirosh was lighting a flame in memory of Sivakumaran before being disrupted by Sri Lankan police who claimed that due to a travel ban in the area, they were not allowed to pay their respects. The police stated that only 'essential' services were allowed to take place. 

14 people who were praying at a mosque in Jaffna on Friday, were forcibly removed by police officers and ordered to quarantine, who stated the travel ban must still be adhered to.  

The recent killing of a Tamil youth by the Sri Lankan Intelligence division in custody in Batticaloa, involved him being "tied to a tree" and repeatedly beaten by officers, according to his sister and other nearby witnesses. 

A landmark decision from a British tribunal found that Tamils who engage in a range of political activities in the United Kingdom may continue to face “a real risk of ill-treatment or harm” if deported to Sri Lanka, in a significant ruling that clarifies and expands those who may face persecution on the island.

The ruling, which centred on the asylum appeal of two Tamil refugees in the UK, known as KK and RS, importantly expands the criteria of those who may be at risk in Sri Lanka, taking into account a range of activities from posting on social media, to attendance at commemorative events and even signing petitions that could be “perceived as being anti-government”.

Sri Lanka’s President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has ordered Governors and District Secretaries to maintain operations in factories and developments projects despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.