In Workers' Youth League (AUF) she has had both local and central key positions and has been editor of the nationwide membership magazine, Praksis[1][5][6][7][8][9] During an interview with Guardian journalist Lauren Razavi two months after she was elected, Gunaratnam described her political approach: "The only way we can move society forward is by disagreeing, discussing and coming up with new solutions to the problem we're facing.

There was a time when Norwegian people flew over the Atlantic to the United States because of the situation in Norway.

[10] After joining the Tamil Youth Organisation in Oslo, Gunaratnam met governing mayor Raymond Johansen who encouraged her to get involved with politics, which she did.

She was subsequently banned from returning to Sri Lanka as a result of her engagement with politics in Norway.

[citation needed] On 22 July 2011, when Gunaratnam was aged 23, she attended a Workers' Youth League Camp on the island of Utøya, where Anders Behring Breivik committed a massacre that killed 69 people.