Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been accused of taking pleasure in others’ suffering and showing a lack of humanity in attempting to deport a Tamil asylum seeker family.
Hundreds of people rallied across Australia yesterday to protest the possible deportation of the family.
The government sent Tamil husband and wife Nadesalingam and Priya, and their daughters Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, to Christmas Island from Darwin on Saturday after their legal team won a court injunction preventing their deportation until this Wednesday.
Carina Ford, their Melbourne-based solicitor, is due back in the Federal Circuit Court today.
Mr Dutton, meanwhile, has told The Courier-Mail a vessel stopped by the Australian Border Force last month confirms the "real" threat of asylum seeker boats from Sri Lanka. The boat was stopped on August 7. The home affairs minister released the information yesterday.