Welcome home. With a Labor victory at the 2022 federal election, we join the family as they return home to Biloela. It’s a teary, frantic, and joyous reunion for them, but what does this mean for other families like the Nadeslinagams? Is Labor’s election win the victory that people think it is?
In this episode we explore what our government is still doing to not have to accept asylum seekers into our country, what made this family and this campaign so special, as well as what’s next for the family.
Everything is riding on the 2022 federal election. The LNP have held firm that the Nadesalingams would not be returning to Biloela, and no special visa would be granted to them, but the Labor Party has made an election promise to return them to Biloela if they are elected. How did this one family become an election talking point in 2022?
We find out if four years of campaigning to bring this family back to Biloela is actually changing the way people vote. And we join the campaign team as they make a final push to get people to preference Labor over LNP for this one family.
Another deportation attempt is made, but this time, more people are following their story. Supporters drop what they are doing and dash to the airport to help. Campaigners jump the fence and get arrested. Nevertheless, the family are separated and forced onto a plane. But an urgent injunction is granted mid-flight, and forces the plane to land in Darwin. Rather than fly them back to Melbourne detention, the Nadesalingams are flown to a detention centre on a remote offshore territory of Australia, a detention centre that has not been in use for over 4 years.
The government spent $27 million dollars in 2019 reopening this facility to detain four people. It is in this facility that both Priya and Tharnicca faced significant health issues. So with the amount of money going into these detention centres, why are conditions so poor? And why is nothing happening to fix it?
Early one Monday morning, having spent three and a half years building their life in Biloela, the Nadesalingams are forcibly removed from their homes, thrown into white vans, and flown to a detention centre in Melbourne. The family are told they can’t get access to a phone unless they sign documents saying they would leave the country. What do they do?
Why was their visa application unsuccessful? What information is the government using to assess them? And what else can they do to not be sent back to danger? Meanwhile, the Biloela community are left shocked by the sudden disappearance of the Nadesalingams and start organising.
It was conventional British colonial policy to look for minorities in colonised territories to use them where possible as the administrative class. Minorities, like the Tamils in Sri Lanka, tended to be more amenable to be used in this fashion because at times this strengthened their position in society. Following Sri Lanka’s independence from the British, the majority Sinhalese ethnic group take power. Racial tensions escalate, erupting in a war in 1983, with government sanctioned troops killing thousands of Tamil civilians as they attempt to suppress the Tamil Tiger movement. Priya and Nades are caught in the middle of it.
But what role does Australia play in this civil war? And Australia says things are better since the war ended in 2009, but what is it actually like for the people living there?
Nades says he couldn’t sleep when he arrived on Christmas Island. The beds felt like they were moving just like the boat he arrived on. Priya started to feel scared as other asylum seekers around her were being removed by SERCO guards with their belongings in black garbage bags in the dead of night.
Nades, Priya, and their two Australian-born daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, commonly referred to as the ‘Biloela family’, became the faces of the rural Aussie community of Biloela, but how did they actually end up there? In this episode, we follow their arduous journey to build their life in Australia, what they call a “happy time”, whilst they jump through the bureaucratic hurdles of applying for different visas to not be sent back to danger, knowing that they could be deported the moment one of them expires. Pressure builds as one by one, other asylum seekers around them are deported. What will this mean for them?
Australia's asylum seeker system has been a subject of intense debate and criticism both domestically and internationally for their humanitarian, legal, and ethical implications. While the country maintains a stringent approach to border protection, these are some of the major issues plaguing Australia's asylum seeker system.
Nadesalingam Murugappan and Priya Nadesalingam, also known as Nades and Priya, fled Sri Lanka to escape persecution faced by Tamils after the Sri Lankan Civil War. Nades arrived in Australia by boat in 2012, followed by Priya in 2013. They met and married in Australia, eventually settling in the small town of Biloela, Queensland.
During Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, there were periods where peace negotiations were taking place between the two main parties involved – the Sri Lankan Government, and the Tamil Tigers. However, foreign interest in Sri Lanka led to countries like the US (and Australia) trying to influence the outcome of the civil war, and therefore the peace process.
Australia’s Country Information Reports are reports prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, or DFAT, on an asylum seeker’s country of origin, in this case Sri Lanka. They’re required to be taken into consideration by the Department of Home Affairs, the Immigration Assessment Authority and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. They outline things like geography, population, current and past issues, the stability of the country and how safe it is for people.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a resistance group also known as the Tamil Tigers, were founded in 1976 to call for an independent state from Sri Lanka. This is after decades of discrimination and violence perpetrated against the Tamil ethnic minority in the northern and north-eastern part of Sri Lanka.
The countless protests and organised resistance that have recently been documented on social media have informed people about the Israeli occupation of Palestine in a way like never before in the 70 year conflict. This has empowered everyday people (and mostly young people) who are witnessing the unfiltered violence on their screens, to become critical of the narrative that is perpetuated by mainstream media organisations and politicians, as well as the political objectives that may be underpinning them.
