The British Tamils Forum, also widely known as ‘BTF’ is an organisation which represents and gives voice to a large Tamil community in the United Kingdom in political and socio-economic spheres.
BTF was established as an advocacy group in 2006, with the support of our people in the island of Sri Lanka, to undertake high level diplomacy, engaging with the members of parliament, government representatives, policy makers, civil society organisations and to, mobilise the Tamil Community in the UK, to advocate and advance the Tamil cause for truth, justice, democracy and recognition of their right to self-determination.
In 2010, BTF transformed into a nonpartisan, grassroots community organisation representing the collective voice of the Tamil Community in the UK, by bringing together individuals and Tamil organisations in a bottom-up structure, governed along the principles of participatory democracy. Tamil people living across the length and breadth of the UK participate in BTF through their Constituency Tamils Forum (CTF) by electing their representatives annually to the National Assembly (NA) of BTF.
CTFs are the building blocks of this organisation; the views expressed by BTF are those of the majority of its members. Thus members are able to influence the strategic directions of BTF by participating in CTF and NA meetings and activities.
Political party support groups such as the Tamils for Labour (TfLab), the British Tamil Conservatives (BTC) and the Tamil Friends of Liberal Democrats (TFoLD) are also represented in the national assembly and influence our strategic directions on behalf of the Tamil Community within the political parties in the UK.
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