Hundreds of asylum seekers have fled Sri Lanka, across the Indian Ocean to the islands of La Réunion and Mayotte off the coast of Madagascar, only to be deported back to Colombo according to figures released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Since January 2018, at least 291 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka reached the African islands. Yet the vast majority have had their asylum applications turned down by the French territories, reports The New Humanitarian. It states that in February for instance, of 70 people who arrived on the island, only six were allowed to enter.

A Sri Lankan court has acquitted four soldiers over the gang rape of a Tamil woman, after they had been found guilty and sentenced for the crime in 2015.

The four soldiers from Sri Lanka’s 572 Brigade, identified by The Island as P. I. Sunasinghe, D. Dhammika Pushpakumara, Priyantha Kumara and one other soldier, had initially been found guilty of raping the 27-year old Tamil mother of two in Kilinochchi in 2010, by the Jaffna High Court in 2015. They had been sentenced to at least 25 years imprisonment.

A 25-year-old Tamil man was arrested by Sri Lankan police for allegedly possessing an LTTE uniform and cap.

Police said the man from Vaddukoddai, Jaffna was arrested after being searched at the Vavuniya bus stand by regional narcotics police.

The United National Party’s (UNP) presidential candidate, Sajith Premadasa, launched his campaign today, vowing to appoint former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, as Head of National Security if elected in the upcoming election. 

“At the moment, national security has become an issue that has drawn the attention of many in the country. After my victory, I will entrust the responsibility of national security to Sarath Fonseka,” Premadasa told the crowd.

Sudden searches and patrols by Sri Lankan military and police forces left Vavuniya residents alarmed over the weekend.

Military personnel blocked roads in Eechankulam, Pampaimadu and Maharambaikulam and carried out intensive searches of pedestrians and motorists.

Tamils in Jaffna protested on Saturday calling for the arrest of extremist Buddhist monk Gnanasara of the Sinhala nationalist Bodu Bala Sena organisation.

<p>Sri Lanka’s Election Commission (EC) says it has received 156 poll-related complaints, 153 relating to a violation of election laws and 3 relating to electoral violence.</p> <p>In the last 24 hours, the EC had received 92 of said complaints of law violations and one incident of violence.</p> <p>These complaints have been lodged by the EC's Election Complaint Management Unit and similar units set-up in all districts. The EC was set up in September in the lead up to the Presidential election with commission officials stressing that social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Instagram would be closely monitored this year.</p>

Malaysian authorities have arrested two lawmakers and give other activists for alleged links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which continues to be listed as a “terrorist organisation” in the country.

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Harini Sivalingam, lawyer, community activist and PhD candidate at York University, wrote about the arrival of the <em>Ocean Lady</em> and <em>Sun Sea </em>in Canada ten years ago, carrying Tamil refugees&nbsp;who "fled horrors in their homeland in search of safety, security and stability."</p>

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa may evade accountability for war crimes if he wins next month’s presidential elections, warned Beth Van Schaack, stating that plaintiffs pursuing cases against him in the USA are “racing against time”.

Van Schaack, the former Leah Kaplan Visiting Professor of Human Rights at Stanford Law School and former Deputy to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice at the US State Department, went on to state,