Plane carrying Tamil family being deported ordered to turn around

Radio host Alan Jones is usually known as a strident conservative. Today he surprised listeners by denouncing a controversial government decision.

A federal judge has granted an extended injunction preventing the deportation of a Tamil family from Darwin to Sri Lanka until after another court hearing next Wednesday.

Angel Aleksov, representing the family, asked Justice Mordecai Bromberg to extend the injunction so they could make a further application for Nadesalingam, Priya and their daughters to remain in Australia.

Mr Aleksov argued no assessment had been made by any Australian official as to whether the youngest daughter, Tharunicca, was owed protection obligations.

Justice Bromberg subsequently ordered the government to be prevented from removing her until 4pm on Wednesday.

Technically, that order only applies to Tharunicca, and her parents and sister could still be deported at the government’s discretion. Practically, it means the entire family will remain in Australia for now.

Lawyers representing the Department of Immigration agreed to the extension, but said the application to stay in Australia would ultimately prove to be “hopeless”.

“This decision gives us some relief. I don’t know what else to say,” the girls’ mother Priya told SBS Tamil after Justice Bromberg’s decision.

“The people of Australia are very kind, they have humanitarian values. They will accept me as a refugee.

“They have showered our family with love for the past 17 months. I am very hopeful that their love will succeed one day soon.”

She said her children “don’t know any life” outside Australia and “can’t face any more trauma”.

“I plead with the Home Affairs Minister to take another look at our situation, open his heart and grant us a safe life here, for the sake of my children,” she said.

Kopika and Tharunicaa Nadesalingam.

The girls were born in Australian.

Earlier today, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has urged the family to “accept they are not refugees”, bluntly shooting down the suggestion that he could use his ministerial powers to save them.

A plane carrying the Tamil family had already taken off from Melbourne late last night when a last-minute injunction was granted to halt their deportation. They then landed in Darwin.

On Channel 9’s morning show Today, Mr Dutton was not budging.

“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,” Mr Dutton said.

“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.”

Peter Dutton on Today this morning.

Deborah Knight interviewing Peter Dutton.

“But the process by which this has taken place overnight - bundled on a flight, then told no, you can stay. They have two young daughters. This could be distressing for anyone,” host Deborah Knight put to Mr Dutton.

“It would be. But this doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The deportation has been explained to them over many years,” he replied.

“I would like the family to accept that they are not refugees. They’re not owed protection by our country. They came here by boat and we’ve been very clear that they couldn’t stay.

“This case has been pored over. Before the couple had children, they were told they would not be staying. We’ve been clear and consistent.”

Labor’s Richard Marles put forward the opposing argument.

“The community are welcoming of this family, and they’ve made a contribution to the community in Biloela. Their two children have been born in Australia. They’ve now been here since 2011, 2012 so they’ve been here for a long time,” Mr Marles said.

“This Minister has discretion here, which can be used.

“They know no other country but Australia, and it’s not about stats from the past, it’s about this family right now.”

“I would like the family to accept that they are not refugees. That they’re not owed protection by our country. They came here by boat and we’ve been very clear that they wouldn’t stay.” @PeterDutton_MP on a Queensland family set to be deported back to Sri Lanka. #9Today pic.twitter.com/up4joPlyXO

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) August 29, 2019

Over on 2GB radio, Alan Jones took a rare swipe at the government, saying the family were good, hardworking people contributing to their community in regional Queensland.

“I think this is a shameful chapter by the Morrison government that plainly doesn’t care,” Jones said.

“I don’t care what these people might or mightn’t have done. They’ve killed no one, they’ve bludged off no one, they’ve offended no one. And they’re treated in this way in my country, your country.

“The monsters here are the government.”

A video posted on Facebook last night showed the family’s devastated father, Nadesalignam, holding his two daughters as their charter flight prepared to take off.

After the intervention from Judge Heather Riley, it landed in Darwin around 2am.

Earlier on Thursday, supporters of Nadesalingam, his wife Priya and the two girls, aged four and two, gathered near the hangar to protest their deportation to Sri Lanka, where they are at risk of persecution because of past family links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

At least 70 supporters chanted “let them stay” as the plane prepared for takeoff.

Two women were arrested and federal police expect to charge them after they allegedly cut through a boundary fence and got onto the tarmac.

Tamil asylum seekers Nadesalingnam, wife Priya, and their Australian-born daughters Dharuniga and Kopiga.

The parents were for a time on Thursday separated from their children and “dragged against their will by Border Force officials on to a Skytraders plane,” according to Chris Breen of the Refugee Action Collective.

A supporter told the Sydney Morning Herald Priya was crying out as she was led to the plane.

“The officers came down and didn’t care, they just dragged her. She was screaming, both girls were screaming. It was very, very traumatic.”

The family has received strong support from Australians with more than 200,000 people signing a Change.org online petition to prevent them from being sent back.

“The Coalition government must not ignore the groundswell of support for this family,” Mr Breen said.

“Damage has already been done to the health of the family’s two young girls by prolonged detention. The cruelty must end.”

Angela Fredericks, who is behind the campaign to keep the family in Australia, said she is unsure what will happen to them now.

“I’d dare say they’d be escorted off the plane then I’d say they would be back in a detention centre so whether they will be flown back to Melbourne I don’t know,” she told AAP.

Priya and Nadesalingam came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 fleeing violence following Sri Lanka’s civil war.

The plane is operated by Skytraders, a private charter flight company. Pic: Refugee Action Collective

Supporters gathered near the hangar to protest the family’s removal. Pic: Refugee Action Collective

The family had been held in a Melbourne detention centre since March 2018, after being taken from their home in Biloela, in Queensland, during a pre-dawn raid.

They lived in Biloela for four years on a temporary bridging visa before it ran out in March 2018. The High Court denied their final bid to stay in May 2018.

Last week the family found out their efforts to stay in the country had been rejected, with supporters calling on the federal immigration minister to reconsider.

“The United Nations Special repertoire for torture made a plea to states not to send Tamil’s back to Sri Lanka in the last year,” Refugee Action Collective spokeswoman Lucy Honan said.

The Department of Immigration had previously stated the family’s case had been assessed over many years.

Originally published as Plane carrying Tamil family being deported ordered to turn around