Updated
Last-minute injunctions have stalled the deportation of a Tamil family who have spent years fighting to stay in Australia.
The
plane carrying the Sri Lankan couple and their Australian-born
daughters had already left the tarmac at Melbourne Airport when a judge
granted a reprieve over the phone.Here's what we know about the family's case:
Who are they?
Priya and Nadesalingam, also known as Nades, came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013.
Friends and support groups say the pair fled Sri Lanka because of the persecution of the Tamil people.
The couple married and settled in the Central Queensland town of Biloela, where they lived and worked for about three years.
Their two daughters, Kopika and Tharunicaa, were born in Australia and are now aged 4 and 2.
Why are they being deported?
Photo:
Tharunicaa, at age nine months, and Kopika, aged two years. (Supplied: Tamil Refugee Council)
It's understood Priya and Nades's visas expired between January and February 2018.
The Department of Home Affairs has repeatedly said that the family's case has been comprehensively assessed over many years, and they have consistently been found not to meet Australia's protection obligations.
The family also had their appeal rejected by the Federal Circuit Court in June last year.
In that judgment, the judge noted that Nades had returned to Sri Lanka on three occasions during the civil war and there was no evidence to suggest his family still living in Sri Lanka was at risk from authorities.
She also noted the passage of time since the Sri Lankan civil war, which ended in May 2009.
Where have they been?
After their visas expired, the family were removed from their home by Border Force officials in March 2018.They were flown to a detention centre in Melbourne, where they remained until Thursday night.
The Biloela community and various humanitarian and social justice groups have fought to free the family.
The High Court dismissed an application to review the case in May 2019.
What happened on Thursday night?
Just after 8:00pm on Thursday, advocacy group Home to Bilo tweeted the family were being deported.
A friend of the family said they were taken to Melbourne Airport without warning.
The friend said Priya was put in one van and the girls were put in a different van.
Dozens of people responded to Home to Bilo's call to go to the airport in a bid to stop the deportation.
As the plane departed just before 11:00pm, an interim injunction was granted over the phone by a judge to prevent them from leaving the country.
The plane landed in Darwin shortly before 3:00am Friday and the family was taken from the aircraft.
On Friday morning, the family was being held at a hotel at Darwin Airport.
What happens now?
On Friday morning the Federal Court ruled that the youngest daughter, Tharunicaa, not be deported from Australia until 4:00pm Wednesday.
According to the family's lawyer Carina Ford, it's now up to the Government to decide if it will proceed with the removal of the other family members.
"It would be pretty inhumane to separate the family at this time," she said.Friday on Channel Nine's The Today Show, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said he wanted the family to accept they weren't refugees and wouldn't be able to stay in Australia.
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