Tamil asylum seeker family from Biloela loses appeal against deportation
Posted
The Federal Court has rejected a Tamil asylum seeker family's appeal against deportation, a month after residents from their rural Queensland town pleaded for government intervention.
Nades, Priya and their two young daughters were removed from their home in Biloela in March this year and flown to Melbourne's Broadmeadows detention centre.
Biloela locals have been lobbying against their deportation back to Sri Lanka, and last month two Biloela residents used the ABC's Q&A program to press Liberal Senator Jim Molan to ask Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to intervene.
The parents arrived in Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 and had been living and working in Biloela for around three years.
Previous appeals against deportation by family members through the refugee tribunal and lower courts had failed before Federal Circuit Court Justice Caroline Kirton today rejected an appeal by Priya and her eldest daughter.
They now have 21 days to appeal against the judgement.
The father of the Tamil family, Nades, has already exhausted all avenues of appeal and, along with the rest of the family, remains in immigration detention in Melbourne.
More to come.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, immigration, community-and-society, federal-government, government-and-politics, activism-and-lobbying, biloela-4715, rockhampton-4700, brisbane-4000, melbourne-3000, qld, vic, australia
