Jaffna students stranded in Colombo

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 06:01 GMT]
About thirty Tamil students from Jaffna district who came to attend the All Ceylon English Day contest have been stranded in Colombo with out necessary transport arrangement. However the English Day contest was also cancelled due to the volatile security situation in the capital. These students arrived in Colombo before the war between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) broke out in the first week of August.

Ceylon English Teachers Union (CETU) has blamed the education authorities for the failure to provide adequate security for these students to stay in Colombo and transport arrangement for them to return to Jaffna district.

These students have been staying in Colombo with their relatives and in lodges taking high risk of being arrested during frequent cordon and search operations now being held.

CETU has appealed to the Department of Education to send these students to Jaffna district with adequate security with the facilitation of the International Committee of Red cross (ICRC).