An experienced immigration lawyer is sounding warning that the pro-refugee activism and the unusual travel history of the Tamil father could see a Biloela family at the centre of an immigration row deported. A Sri Lankan couple and their Australian born daughters were spared deportation by a last minute injunction and are to have their case heard in the Melbourne Federal circuit Court.
Friends and support groups have said that the couple, Priya and Nadesalingam fled Sri Lanka during the civil war because of prosecution of Tamil people. However, the department of home affairs said the family had been comprehensively assessed a number of times through Immigration tribunals and appeals in the courts and had consistently been found to not be genuine refugees.
Simon Jeans, an immigration lawyer who worked with the past 10 immigration ministers, has been following the unfolding situation. He says, several errors were made in the family’s bid to stay in Australia. He says that the family had not been truthful in their visa applications and evidence suggests that they came to Australia by boat as economic refugees instead.
An injunction stopped the family from being deported last Thursday and will be in effect until 4pm on Wednesday. The family also submitted an application on behalf of their youngest daughter for Australia’s protection and their legal team will argue that Tharunicaas’s protection claim was never assessed.
They are also relying on this application because Tharunicaa was born after their asylum request was made in 2016. Both parents arrived in Australia separately in 2012 and 2013 and met in 2014. Their oldest daughter was born in 2015 and their youngest in 2017.
Each family member made appeals, however they were all rejected. If they are sent back to Sri Lanka, both face prosecution because they are linked to the Militant group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
