’Open your heart’: Tamil parents beg Dutton to let them stay

A TAMIL couple who bear the scars of Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war has tearfully begged Peter Dutton to “open his heart” and give their young daughters a safe life in Australia.

Priya, husband Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, have been under guard in Darwin after a judge issued a last-minute injunction to halt their deportation from Melbourne to Sri Lanka on Thursday.

Their flight landed in Darwin after the order was made and the family was taken off the plane. On Friday, a Melbourne court ordered the Federal Government not to expel the youngest child until a further hearing on Wednesday.

The family’s legal team say only Tharunicaa is protected by the ruling because her claims for asylum protections have never been assessed.

It’s possible the rest of her family could be expelled as their legal avenues have been exhausted, but solicitor Carina Ford said Australia would be condemned if it split up the family.

The Government has not wavered amid intense community support for the family, saying the couple are not refugees and used people smugglers to reach Australia when the war was raging.

Mr Dutton says the war is over now and it’s time for the family to go home.

“I would like the family to accept that they are not refugees, they’re not owed protection by our country,” he told the Nine Network.

The couple says the Government does not grasp the ongoing threats to Tamils in Sri Lanka, and particularly to people like Nadesalingam due to past links with Tamil Tigers insurgents who battled Sri Lanka’s government.

The couple does not deny coming illegally to Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013, but say they had no other way to get out alive. “It is not safe for my husband, it is not safe for me because of the government,” Priya said. “We are all over the news. They know he has been in the LTTE (Tamil Tigers).”

The tearful couple begged Mr Dutton to intervene.

“Open your heart,” cried Priya.

Tamil Refugee Council spokesman Aran Mylvaganam called on the Government to impose a moratorium on Tamil deportations, saying the risks are real. “There’s a military occupation in the north and east of Sri Lanka, where Priya and Nades come from,” he told the ABC.

Mr Dutton said the deportation had been years in the making. He also suggested the family was using social media to garner community support.

“They’ve got a lot of support online because there are children involved.”