The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) lashed out at Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison for not meeting with Chief Minister of the North C.V. Wigneswaran during the Minister’s visit to Jaffna.

“Everything happened under the radar and the TNA was not even aware that the Australian Immigration Minister visited Jaffna,” TNA Media Spokesman Parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran told Asian Mirror.

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“How can one get an idea about the problems in the North without meeting representatives elected by the people of the North? He only met the Governor of the Province, who was appointed by the President. The meeting lasted only for 45 minutes and the TNA was kept in the dark about the meeting,” Premachandran said while adding that they only got to know about the visit nearly four hours after the Australian Minister left Jaffna.

“We are utterly disappointed with the behavior of the Australian Prime Minister. We never expected this sort of treatment from him,” the TNA Media Spokesman lamented.

Sources from the North confirmed Asian Mirror that Morrison did not meet any of the Tamil civil society during his visit to Jaffna. When contacted by us, sources close the Australian Immigration Minister who wished to remain anonymous said the latter did not meet the Chief Minister of the North due to “time constraints.”

"The Australian government takes very seriously our responsibility, as well as the Sri Lankan government people's safety and the various obligations that they have under the various conventions to which we are signatories," the Australian Immigration Minister said in Sri Lanka.

Morrison was in Colombo to hand over two patrol boats to Sri Lanka to strengthen surveillance against people smuggling.