The Tamil family at the centre of a dramatic deportation attempt that has attracted national attention have been moved from Darwin to Christmas Island, according to reports.
Nadesalingam, Priya and their two children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, were due to be expelled from the country on Thursday night, but were granted a last-minute injunction by a Federal Court judge as their plane flew out of Melbourne.
They landed in Darwin where they were given accommodation at a location surrounded by guards but the situation changed overnight.
According to supporters, the family was unable to be contacted on Friday and it is now believed they have been removed from the Australian mainland to Christmas Island.
In a statement, campaigners trying to keep the family in Australia say Priya and Nadesalingam’s phones have been confiscated and they are not allowed to keep contact with supporters.
“Amid much speculation as to what the Australian Government’s plans were for this family, the Department of Immigration lawyers assured the family’s lawyer there were no plans to split the family, and they were being held in Darwin,” the statement read.
“This is the second flight in as many days under the cover of darkness, taking this family even further away from the support of the community that loves them.”
The Department of Home Affairs has been contacted ad refused to make comment.
The injunction order granted on Thursday night means the family’s two-year-old daughter Tharunicaa cannot be expelled from the country until a court hearing on Wednesday, as her claims for asylum have not yet been assessed.
But the family’s lawyer, Carina Ford, said the injunction did not protect Nadesalingam, Priya or Kopika from being removed.
“It will be left to the Department (of Immigration) and the (Home Affairs) Minister to determine what to do with the remaining members of the family,” she said.
CASE PUTS HUMAN FACE ON DEPORTATION
The case has highlighted the plight of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia, which rarely plays out in the public eye.
It even sparked a rare swipe at the government from conservative radio host Alan Jones, who said the family were good, hardworking people contributing to their community in the regional town of Biloela, Queensland.
Australia has previously been condemned by the UN Refugee Agency for its treatment of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru, while Human Rights Watch said in its 2019 World Report that “serious issues” remained.
“Many refugees and asylum seekers suffer from poor mental health or mental illness due to, or exacerbated by, years of detention and uncertainty about their futures,” the report said.
“As a member of the Tamil community, we’re all heartbroken by how this family has been treated by our government,” Aran Mylvaganam, a spokesman from the Tamil Refugee Council, said.
Videos taken by the family showed how they were loaded into two separate vans on Thursday night, as they were transported to Melbourne Airport. They were then separated again as officials prepared them for their flight.
“My baby crying,” Priya can be heard saying in one video, as she’s held back by staff.
Another video showed the children crying as Priya was dragged on-board the plane.
“This is hard to watch, but we must not look away. And we all must ask ourselves if this is really what we want for this family and our country,” the campaign to keep the family in Australia said on Facebook.
‘OPEN YOUR HEART’
Speaking through a translator from Darwin, where the family is now being held, Priya told AAP her family would not be safe if they returned to Sri Lanka.
She and Nadesalingam travelled to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 to flee the violence following the country’s bloody civil war.
“It is not safe for my husband, it is not safe for me because of the government,” she said.
“We are all over the news. They know he has been in the LTTE,” she said, referring to the Tamil Tigers guerrilla group that sought to establish an independent state in Sri Lanka.
“Open your heart,” she urged of Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.
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But Mr Dutton has said the family are not refugees and are “not owed protection by our country”.
“This case has gone on for a long time, so it’s been through decision makers at the department, it’s been on review to the Magistrates Court, on review to the Federal Court, to the full Federal Court, to the High Court. All of those have found that these people are not refugees,” he told Channel 9’s morning show Today.
“We brought more people in last year through the refugee and humanitarian program than almost any year in the last 30, and in this case they’ve been found not to be refugees.”
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