Tamil family moved yet again From Darwin to Xmas Island ahead of hearing

A TAMIL asylum seeker family has been transported from Darwin to Christmas Island after being given a reprieve against deportation from Australia until Wednesday.

Supporters said they lost contact with the family on Friday night, and learned just after 2am that they had arrived at a detention centre on the island, northwest of Australia.

In a statement, the Home to Bilo group said the family’s solicitor Carina Ford had been notified of the move in a notice received from the immigration department during the night.

Priya, her husband Nadesalingam and their Australianborn children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, had been held at a Darwin military base.

Priya was able to make contact with family and friends when they arrived at Christmas Island. “My children have been separated from their world,” she said.

“This is the second flight in as many days under the cover of darkness, taking this family even further away from the support of the community that loves them,” family friend Rebekah Holt said.

The move comes after a judge issued a last-minute injunction to halt their deportation from Melbourne to Sri Lanka on Thursday night.

The family landed in Darwin after the order was made and were taken off the plane.

On Friday, there was another glimmer of hope.

A Melbourne court ordered the government not to expel the youngest child until a further hearing on Wednesday.

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

The rest of her family could be expelled as their legal avenues have been exhausted but Ms Ford said Australia would be condemned if it split up the family.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is refusing to budge. “I would like the family to accept that they are not refugees,” he said on Friday.