Friend tells of Tamil family’s torment on detention island

A Tamil couple and their two young daughters are under enormous mental strain as they await the outcome of their desperate battle against deportation, a friend says.

Angela Fredericks has gone to Christmas Island to support her friends, who will be sent back to Sri Lanka as early as Friday if they lose a last-ditch legal bid to remain here.

She says she had to fight for permission to spend time with Priya, her husband Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2.

When she was finally allowed inside the Christmas Island facility where they are being held, she said the family’s mental torment was very difficult to watch.

‘‘The weight of Priya in my arms, just sobbing ... there’s just so much heart-break, and so much fear and distress,’’ she said from the island yesterday.

‘‘The girls ran up to me and held onto my legs. Kopika, she was always such a cheeky, bright little girl. I see so much frustration in her now.

‘‘Yesterday she was just playing with sticks. Her actions, you can see it, she was just hitting the ground with the stick. I feel like her innocence has gone.’’

Fredericks said a plane was waiting on the tarmac at the island’s airport, waiting to take the family away if they lose a court hearing today relating to the youngest child’s case for Australia’s protection.

Despite widespread support for the family to be allowed to remain in Australia, the Morrison government has refused to intervene.

The Federal Court has ordered the government not to deport the family until 4pm today so it can continue hearing Tharunicaa’s case for protection.

– AAP