'This is exactly what deportation looks like': Waleed Aly's powerful speech on why Sri Lankan asylum seekers should be allowed to stay in Australia - as D-Day for family is delayed until Friday
- Asylum seeker family facing deportation were filmed being forced onto a plane
- Sri Lankan Tamils Nades, Priya and two daughters adopted by Outback town
- Family face imminent deportation without a change of heart by Peter Dutton
- Waleed Aly delivered a heartfelt speech why the family should stay in Australia
Waleed Aly has delivered a powerful speech on why a Tamil asylum seeker family from Sri Lanka should be allowed to stay in Australia.
The Project host showed a confronting video of the terrified family being removed from a Melbourne detention centre and forced onto a plane destined for Sri Lanka.
'Can you imagine being on the plane thinking, what you're going back to? I can't image how hard this is,' Aly said during the segment, which aired last Friday.
'We hear about deportation and the threat asylum seekers face all the time, we're almost desensitised to it… this is exactly what deportation looks like.'
Parents Priya and Nades and their two Australian-born children Kopica, four, and Tharunicaa, two, will have to wait until Friday to learn if they will be deported.
Their last-ditch bid for freedom was pushed back to Friday by the Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne and they remain on Christmas Island.
The Tamil asylum seeker family who won the hearts of a tiny rural community before they were told to leave the country will find out their fate today
The Tamil asylum seeker family won the hearts of a tiny rural community in the the Queensland country town of Biloela before they were told to leave the country.
The footage was from last week before an 11th hour injunction gave the family some hope of being able to stay in Australia, forcing the plane to land in Darwin.
The family have been detained on Christmas Island - 2000km from Perth - since they were secretly re-located there on Friday evening.
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The family were hoping to learn their fate on Wednesday, with a court hearing that would test the youngest Australian-born child's case for Australia's protection.
However, the Federal Court in Melbourne extended the injunction protecting Tharunicaa from being deported until Friday.
While the application only applies for the youngest child, the family's lawyers claim the family will not be separated.
Mr Dutton has rounded on the couple, saying the reason they've been in Australia for so long is because they have refused to accept rulings that they are not genuine refugees
Ahead of their fate being decided, Priya has spoken out about the family's isolation on Christmas Island, where they're the only detainees.
Speaking to 10 News First on the phone through friend Angela Fredericks, Priya said they were sleeping in tiny rooms with 'no safety' and six to eight guards watching the family's every move.
'All the time, night time they come in my bedroom every two hours, three hours,' Priya said.
Priya broke down in tears as she thanked everyone for their prayers and support.
'There is so much love, we're very lucky,' Priya said.
'This is a very hard time'.
A succession of courts, including the High Court, have found the parents and the oldest child are not refugees and do not qualify for Australia's protection.
The Sri Lankan family made the Queensland country town of Biloela their home, with the town now rallying behind the family as they learn if they can stay in the country
While protesters have rallied behind the family, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dismissed backlash as 'Twitter public sentiment'.
'It's about doing the right thing by the national interest. It's not about chasing public sentiment,' he told said.
'I understand absolutely the motivation and the compassion that Australians have expressed in relation to this case.
'But I also know from bitter experience that if you make the wrong calls on these issues, then you invite tragedy and you invite chaos.'
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claims the couple have unfairly dragged their two children through the drawn-out court appeal.
Mr Dutton has rounded on the couple, saying the reason they've been in Australia for so long is because they have refused to accept rulings that they are not genuine refugees.
He said 'excessive' appeals had kept them here and now they were complaining about having to leave the life they established in the Queensland town of Biloela.
'People have the ability to appeal. That's their legal right,' Mr Dutton told reporters on Tuesday.
The family have been detained on Christmas Island since they were secretly re-located there on Friday evening
'But you can't appeal, refuse the umpire's decision and then delay and delay and delay through subsequent appeal processes and then say it is unfair that you have been here so long and therefore you have established those connections to the community.
'It doesn't cut both ways.'
He said Priya and Nadesalingam's Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, had been put in an unfair situation.
'I think it is unfair to the children in this case where the parents were given a very definite decision that they weren't going to stay here in Australia many years ago and the kids have been drawn through - or dragged through - that process in the subsequent years.'
The government has warned of a return to the dark days of mass drownings at sea if it makes an exception for a family deemed ineligible of protection.
They say people smugglers will kick their trade back into high gear if there's a perception Australia is showing leniency towards illegal boat arrivals like Priya and Nades.
Nades has said his links to Tamil Tigers insurgents who battled Sri Lanka's government during the country's civil war mean he's in danger of persecution if he goes home.
Priya, her husband Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika, four, and Tharunicaa, two, are being held on Christmas Island
But Mr Dutton says he travelled back to Sri Lanka on a number of occasions and he had been unable to convince a succession of courts that he would be in danger.
Nades and Priya came separately to Australia illegally by boat after the war ended. They met here and had two children before settling in Biloela.
The town has waged a spirited campaign to get the family back since they were put in immigration detention last year.
Since then the family's plight has gained national attention, with a series of supporting rallies staged in capital cities on the weekend.
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