Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s enthusiastic embrace of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is reprehensible, the Tamil Refugee Council said today.

Australian High Commission allegedly has demanded that the young man’s family pay $9,000 to facilitate the transfer of body back to Sri Lanka.

The death of a Tamil asylum seeker on Manus Island on Monday is further evidence that the Australian government’s refugee policy is killing people. - Tamil Refugee Council

The murder of Yogarasa Thines at the hands of Sri Lankan police on 9 July shows that Tamils are still not safe in their country, says the Tamil Refugee Council.

Tamil community is shocked to learn that Deakin University awarded an honorary doctorate to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday purportedly on the basis of his work on “reconciliation, whilst ensuring accountability.”

The Srisena regime has announced that it will not release most of the Tamil political prisoners who have been languishing in the jails and detention centres in Sri Lanka.

The Tamil Refugee Council urges the Abbott government to back up its words in parliament and release, and rehabilitate, all children, including four-­year-­old Febrina, who are being seriously damaged by incarceration on Nauru.

Four asylum-­‐seekers immediately returned to Sri Lanka after being intercepted on a boat at sea by Australian authorities near the Cocos Islands earlier this month face jail and torture, the Tamil Refugee Council said today.

The Tamil Refugee Council urges the Australian government to use the change of leadership in Sri Lanka to push for a resolution to the country’s most pressing issue – the long-­standing oppression and persecution of Tamils.