This is a special RAR Update on the Biloela family and activists.
Free Priya, Nades and Their Girls! - Digital Rally
Priya, Nades and their Australian-born girls, Kopiga and Tharunicaa, had come to Australia seeking protection after persecution as Tamils in Sri Lanka. They had been living in the small Queensland town of Biloela on a temporary visa before being put in detention – now on Christmas Island – for more than two years.
After many legal challenges, on April 17, the Federal Court of Australia found that Priya’s youngest daughter, Tharunicaa, was not afforded procedural fairness in the decision about her application for a protection visa. The courts ordered that their legal costs be paid by the government.
Despite the court victory, the family remains in detention and continue to face the threat of deportation to Sri Lanka. Acting Minister for Immigration Alan Tudge and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton have the power to release Priya, Nades and their two girls and allow them to return to Biloela.
The Tamil Refugee Council has organised a digital rally which you can join by Zoom
Go to digital rally
Speakers include Vashini Jeyakumar, fellow Tamil and refugee, is a friend of Priya when she lived in Biloela, and Lidia Thorpe, a Gunnai-Gunditjmara woman, former Greens MP, and the first Aboriginal woman elected to Victorian Parliament.
The organisers write: “We must keep up the pressure to let this family stay - mass mobilisation from the refugee movement allowed baby Asha to stay, after health workers refused to send her back to Nauru. The people of Biloela mobilised to defend Priya, Nades and their girls, and almost 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for the family to stay. The Coalition government must not ignore the groundswell of support for this family.”
