There are roughly 240 Tamils on Nauru and Manus Island, from where America has agreed to take up to 1,250 refugees. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump described the agreement as a "dumb deal", and his administration said it would only honour it to maintain a strong relationship with Australia and then only on condition refugees satisfied strict checks.

But America's post 9-11 anti-terror legislation, the Patriot Act, will likely disqualify a large number of the Tamils. Because the since-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels were so heavily enmeshed in the Tamil-dominated north, they would be captured a provision which excludes people deemed to have provided "material support" to terror groups. Kathy Newland, co-founder of the Washington DC Institute for Migration Policy, described material support as a "really broad" category.

"Its everything from money, food, shelter, almost anything, training, to someone associated with a terrorist group," she said. At her home near Jaffna in Sri Lanka's Tamil-dominated north, a mother and widow Mala (not her real name) waits anxiously news from her son. The 24-year-old man is on Nauru, having tried to reach Australia by boat five years ago. He had gone there to seek help for his sister, a Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadre injured in the last days of the war. The family said they were denied proper help. The man's mother worries what will happen to her son if he is to be sent back to Sri Lanka. "If he [is] deported to Sri Lanka, I don't know what will happen," she said.

"The villagers say the people who [are] deported [are] arrested and detained." Last week, the United Nations found she had good reason to be fearful. Ben Emmerson, the UN's special rapporteur on counter terrorism's impact on human rights, said the Tamil community had "borne the brunt of the State's well-oiled torture apparatus," something he said remained the case today. "Any person suspected of association, however indirect, with the LTTE remains at immediate risk of detention and torture," Mr Emmerson said.

The envoy said meetings with prisoners detained under anti-terror laws had revealed disturbing details of ongoing mistreatment. "I heard distressing stories of extremely brutal methods of torture," he told a media conference in Colombo last Friday. Mr Emmerson said the methods being used included "beatings with sticks, the use of stress positions, asphyxiation using plastic bags drenched in kerosene, the pulling out of fingernails, the insertion of needles beneath the fingernails, the use of various forms of water torture, the suspension of individuals for several hours by their thumbs, and the mutilation of genitals".

'I was beaten during detention'

The ABC spoke yesterday to one Tamil deportee

Ahead of the presidential election scheduled for October this year, the foreign powers have ramped up their efforts in the assessment of ground political developments as was in the case of vital elections in the past.

Refuting reports that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa avoided meeting visiting Iranian President Dr. Ebrahim Raisi, SJB MP Nalin Bandara said today that Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa did not get an appointment from the Iranian Embassy to meet the Iranian President.

A soldier was killed and nine others injured when a lorry collided with an army cab at Vasanthanagar in Mankulam early this morning. Police said the lorry travelling from Mankulam to Kilinochchi, crashed onto the cab ahead of it. The injured soldiers were rushed to Kilinochchi Hospital, where one of them succumbed to injuries upon admission.

While condemning the media reports, the Milk Powder Importers’ Association said today that they had not taken any decision to reduce the retail prices of the milk powder packets in the local market. The association media spokesman, Asoka Bandara, said the statement circulated on media platforms is incorrect.

Management of Sri Lanka’s southern Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport has been awarded to a Russia and India joint venture, cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena said.

Public Security Minister Tiran Alles told the police today that eliminating criminals from the country is not a sin and not to be afraid to use weapons. He made these remarks while participating in the passing out parade at Katukurunda STF Training camp.

The Election Commission (EC) stated that several recognised political parties have had to be set aside from the relevant list due to internal crises within the said parties. According to the official website of the EC, there are 84 recognised political parties in Sri Lanka.

In a scathing rebuttal of allegations by Malcom Cardinal Ranjith regarding the Easter Sunday attacks, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said Cardinal Ranjith either glosses over the responsibility of, or expressly absolves the two parties actually involved in the terrorist strikes.

In its first move for the formation of a broad political alliance, President Ranil Wickremesinghe had a meeting with Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) stalwart Basil Rajapaksa and representatives of other parties and groups, and decided to accelerate political work in view of the presidential election after May Day.

The rice distributed among schools said to be unsuitable for children's co consumption was provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) and not by the government, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha assured today.

Opposition Parliamentarian Dayasiri Jayasekara has raised concerns about a growing trend where Sri Lankan retired military personnel are allegedly being exploited in a scheme to send them to serve in the Russian and Ukrainian Armies.

The main Parliamentary Opposition Party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), queried about the actions taken against certain officers in the State Intelligence Service (SIS), who, in certain instances, allegedly blocked the investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) into the Easter Sunday attacks that took place in 2019.

Sri Lanka took minimal steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses, the 2023 report issued by the US State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour on Sri Lanka's Human Rights Practices has alleged.

A top delegation of the Chinese Communist Party headed by Vice Minister of the International Department, Sun Haiyan met National People's Power (NPP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the JVP head office today. The delegation included head of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party Liu Jianchao and Political Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka Chen Xiang Yuan.

The head of one of Canada’s largest police forces met with a Sri Lankan inspector general of police who two weeks earlier had been found by the South Asian country’s highest court to have “participated in the torture” of an arrested man.

The Colombo District Court issued an interim injunction preventing former President Maithripala Sirisena from functioning as the chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Ebrahim Raisi and President Ranil Wickremesinghe jointly inaugurated the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project (UOMDP) a short while ago. This project is one of the largest irrigation projects in Sri Lanka following the Mahaweli Development Project

The three-day adournment debate on the Easter Sunday attacks commenced in Parliament today. The adournment debate was moved by SJB MP Niroshan Perera and seconded by SJB MP Kavinda Jayawardane. The debate will be held for three days.

The Sri Lanka Army has decided to appoint a special investigation committee consisting of 07 senior officers chaired by a Major General to probe the accident that occurred during the Diyatalawa Fox Hill Supercross.

Vice Minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party, Sun Haiyan, is set to arrive in Sri Lanka today for a two-day official visit, as reported by The Thinakaran Newspaper.