Biloela Tamil family: our daughters are scared on Christmas Island, mother says

Extract from The Guardian

Australian immigration and asylum

Kristina Keneally says family clearly is in detention, pointing to footage of them behind fences and under restricted access

Helen Davidson and Josh Taylor

Thu 5 Sep 2019 04.00 AEST Last modified on Thu 5 Sep 2019 04.02 AEST

Tamil asylum seeker husband and wife Nades and Priya and their Australian-born daughters Kopica and Tharunicaa are being detained on Christmas Island.

The youngest daughter of a Sri Lankan family, detained on Christmas Island while they fight deportation, is not eating properly, and is scared, her mother has said.
It comes as the shadow home affairs minister, Kristina Keneally, accused Peter Dutton of only moving them offshore “to get them out of sight of a sympathetic Australian public”.
Tharunicaa, two, is the subject of a court injunction which is currently preventing the Australian government from sending the family back to Sri Lanka.
She and her older sister, Kopika, were born in Australia to their asylum seeker parents, Priya and Nades. The parents’ refugee claims have been rejected by all levels of Australia’s legal system, and they have sought ministerial intervention.

Speaking from the Christmas Island detention centre, where they are the only residents, Priya told Guardian Australia the family is “distressed and worried”.

“Especially Kopika is saying she doesn’t like this place, she wants to go back to Biloela. Tharunicaa is not eating proper food. I think they are scared.”
Priya said there is a nurse on site at all times and a doctor is available if needed, but she said there is no Tamil interpreter. The family has limited English.
“I don’t have any family [in Sri Lanka], only my husband’s family,” she said. “It’s not going to be a safe place for our family there.
“I am asking to both of the ministers kindly and safely please let us go back to Biloela, and please give safety and peaceful life to my daughters.”
The family were put in immigration detention in March last year following a predawn raid on their home of four years in Biloela, Queensland.
Their detention prompted a long-running campaign for their freedom, but after more than 18 months in detention in Melbourne, the family was put on a private-chartered flight bound for Sri Lanka last week. That plane was however forced to land in Darwin after a court injunction. The family was later moved into military barracks, before being transported to Christmas Island last Friday evening.
The distressing and abrupt deportation attempt last week further galvanised supporters around Australia, after video was released of the screaming children, separated from Priya, who was dragged onto the plane. Priya told Guardian Australia she was also separated from her children again for the flight from Darwin to Christmas Island.
On Monday Dutton appeared on the Today show and said the family were not in detention.

“A decision was made for operational reasons to take the family to Christmas Island,” he said on Monday. “They are not in detention up there.”
Keneally pointed to footage of the family behind fences and under restricted access.
“Does the Morrison government take the Australian people for mugs?” she said. “There is only one reason the Morrison government moved the family to Christmas Island – to try to get them out of sight of a sympathetic Australian public that wants them to stay.”
Guardian Australia has approached Dutton’s office for further comment.
On Wednesday afternoon Angela Fredericks, a friend of the family and a lead campaigner from Biloela, visited them after flying to the island the previous afternoon.
“I think given the fact that they’re surrounded by Serco guards, I’d disagree with them saying it’s not a detention centre,” she said.
“If it wasn’t a detention centre they’d be able to walk around the community. There wouldn’t be restrictions, signing in to see them, a metal detector over me.”
Fredericks said the family were staying in a demountable which she believed was used for families when the centre was full.
“There’s a playground in the middle and a grass area with trees,” she said. “[Priya and Nades] showed me footage of inside their rooms and it’s tiny. There’s one bunk bed, Nades and Kopika sleep on the top, and Priya and Tharunicaa sleep on the bottom.”
Fredericks had not been hopeful about being able to visit, however after locating them in a different compound of the facility, she and the family could see each other across a distance of about 200m, and guards appeared to change their mind. She added the Christmas Island community, and detention centre staff, had been supportive.
“I even had one of the guards gave me a big hug and told me they were looking after them,” she said.
Tharunicaa is the only member of the family not to have her refugee claim assessed. On Friday the federal court will hear arguments on whether she has the right to apply.
Lawyers for the immigration minister, David Coleman, revealed on Wednesday that he had decided against lifting the bar and granting Tharunicaa an exemption that would allow her to apply. The family’s lawyers said that was the first they had heard of his decision.
In adjourning to Friday, the judge requested there be no surprises.
In Sydney on Wednesday Guardian Australia approached Coleman and asked whether decisions on the case, including the decision not to raise the bar and allow Tharunicaa to apply for a visa, were being made by him or Dutton, to no response.
Coleman was also asked if he could answer any questions on the family.

“I don’t have any comment, thanks.”