The Vavuniya campus of University of Jaffna has been converted into a separate state university and established as the "University of Vavuniya, Sri Lanka".   

The establishment was notified through a government extraordinary gazette signed by Sri Lankan Education Minister, Professor G.L. Peiris, yesterday. 

The gazette said that the change would come into effect from August 1 2021, from which the university would be formally known as the University of Vavuniya.

Dozens of activists and members of the Tamil community in Germany staged a protest outside a detention centre in Pforzheim, as German authorities deported an estimated 20-23 Tamil refugees to Sri Lanka despite the risk of persecution and torture that they face on the island.

Local Tamil activists alongside those from Amnesty International and other human rights organisations protesting outside the detention centre in an attempt to block the move for more than 70 hours. Despite this, the deportations took place yesterday.

Swiss Tamil activist group, “Phoenix - the Next Generation”, has spoken out against Switzerland’s proposed “Police Measures to Counter Terrorism” (PMT) which they warn will repress Tamil activists.

A Pillaiyar statue was stolen from a Sivan temple in Moongilaru, Mullaitivu last Thursday, just days after Sri Lankan police officers detained and threatened the temple's priests last week. Puthukkudiyiruppu police refused to accept a complaint from temple administration, who insisted that the police officers were complicit in the theft.

German Tamils commemorated the 47th anniversary of Ponnuthurai Sivakumaran’s passing  on June 5. Remembrances took place in Berlin, in front of Freie Universitat Berlin and in Johannez Rau Platz, Dusseldorf. 

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.