Melbourne: In a dramatic development, an injunction which was granted mid-air, temporarily spared a family of four - Nadesalingam, Priya, and their two daughters- from deportation to Sri Lanka. Australian activists were successful in halting the midnight deportation of a Tamil asylum-seeker family as they were being flown out of the country. The family's case has instigated nation-wide outcry since March last year, when authorities forcibly removed them from their home in Queensland. A petition for their return has attracted more than 120,000 signatures.
Australia’s conservative government had ordered the Tamil family to be taken from immigration detention in Melbourne, put on a plane and deported to Sri Lanka. But an injunction made by a phone call from federal judge Heather Riley after the plane took off forced pilots to land the aircraft and deposit the family in the far north city of Darwin. The parents arrived in Australia by boat separately in 2012 and 2013 seeking asylum. Their daughters Kopika, aged four, and Tharunicca, aged two were born in Australia and have never been to Sri Lanka but do not have the right to Australian citizenship by birth.
Australia defended their expulsion, saying they were not refugees. "They're not owed protection by our country," Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said. “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 wouldn’t stay.”
Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson Aran Mylvaganam insisted the family “face danger to their lives in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a very dangerous place for Tamils.” Shadow minister for home affairs Kristina Keneally called on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to intervene. “This is a family that was allowed to stay here for a period of time, allowed to set down roots, allowed to contribute to their local community and now, in the middle of the night, in dramatic scenes, being ripped out of this country,” she said.
