• Nades and Priya had been living in Biloela for four years and have raised their two Australian born daughters here. Nades works at the local abattoir and is a valued team member.

 

• Nades and Priya are Tamil asylum seekers. They arrived separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 respectively. They married in 2014 and have two daughters born in Australia (9mths and 2yrs).

 

• Australian Border Force officials, accompanied by police and Serco guards, arrived at the family’s home at 5am on Monday 5th March 2018 and removed them.

 

• Priya’s bridging visa expired the previous day, she was processing the extension with the Department. 

 

• They were given 10 minutes to pack and flown to Melbourne. They were told to sign documents assenting to “voluntary removal” and told that, if they did not sign them, they would be denied access to a phone and forcibly deported separately.  On 6th March they signed the papers but said it was under unfair duress.

 

• On Tuesday 13th March they were taken to Perth and placed on a Plane for deportation, legal intervention got them taken off the plane before takeoff and they were flown back to Melbourne.

 

• They have been moved to a residence across the road from the Melbourne Detention Centre but are still being detained. They were advised they have an appeal set for 6 weeks and will be detained until then

 

• Priya has not been in Sri Lanka for 18 years and her family is no longer there. Like many northern Tamils, Nades had links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and this makes him almost certain to face persecution if returned.

 

• The UN has reported that Tamils, particularly those with links to LTTE, face systematic persecution and torture and just last month the 2016 -2017 Amnesty International report stated:

 

Tamils complained of ethnic profiling, surveillance and harassment by police suspecting them of LTTE links; the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found that the Sri Lanka Prevention of Terrorism Act was used disproportionately against Tamils. (extracts attached)

 

• A State of Emergency in Sri Lanka was only lifted just last week. Current reports of Tamil persecution in Sri Lanka means this family meets the requirements for protection under Australia’s obligations. 

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• Nades, Priya and their daughters have integrated into the community as asked, they abide by the law and work hard