Dutton ‘cruel on asylum seekers’

HOME Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has been accused of taking pleasure in others’ suffering in attempting to deport a Tamil asylum seeker family.

More than a dozen protests were held around Australia yesterday calling on the Government to let Priya, her husband Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, stay.

They are being held on Christmas Island after being granted an 11th-hour injunction against their deportation.

“This is senseless cruelty, this is cruelty for the sake of being cruel,” federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale told reporters at a rally in Melbourne yesterday.

“This is a minister in Peter Dutton taking pleasure in the suffering of others.

“It’s barbaric, it’s cruel and it needs to end.”

Mr Dutton has refused to budge in the face of mounting community pressure.

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

Federal Court judge Mordy Bomberg extended an interim injunction against the deportation until Wednesday, after lawyers for the family argued Tharunicaa had not been assessed for a protection visa.

The Government had attempted to fly the family out of the country on Thursday night before being forced to land in Darwin because of the lastminute injunction.

But Priya, Nadesalingam, Kopika and Tharunicaa were flown to Christmas Island on Friday night, and are believed to be the only people in the detention centre.

“I spoke to Priya yesterday, she’s very afraid,” New Zealand journalist and family friend Rebekah Holt told yesterday’s rally in Melbourne.

It was one of 15 planned across the country, including in the Queensland community

THIS IS A MINISTER IN PETER DUTTON TAKING PLEASURE IN THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS. IT’S BARBARIC RICHARD DI NATALE

of Biloela, where the Tamil family had settled.

“All I could hear in her voice ... was the stress, the exhaustion and the fear. I asked her if she had a message and she said ‘we’re all alone here’,” Ms Holt said.

Hundreds of people on the steps of the State Library of Victoria chanted “let them stay”.

Earlier, Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese pleaded for the Government to show discretion in the case.

The Tamil family’s plight has also sparked support from more unlikely corners, with radio shock jock Alan Jones among those speaking out in their favour.