Biloela, QLD, February 2024
To us, sacrifice means that we have lost and given up many things in exchange for this [life in Australia]. We have gained something better, but we still feel the pain and the loss of the things that we have left behind.
In order to make a safe and strong future for ourselves and our family, we have given up a whole history; some by choice and some by force. We have given up, lost and left behind many loved ones and much of what should have been the best years of our life.
On 5th March 2018, the day after Priya’s bridging visa had expired, Australian Border Force officials, accompanied by police and Serco guards, removed the family from their home. Priya had been told her new visa was in the post. She had not lived in Sri Lanka for 18 years and her family is no longer there. Like many northern Tamils, Nades had links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and this made him almost certain to face persecution if returned. The family of four were detained in Melbourne until 29 August 2019, when an attempt to deport them to Sri Lanka was stopped by an injunction as the plane was in mid air, forcing it to land in Darwin. The family was then taken to Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre, where they remained until June 2021, when they were allowed to live in community detention in Perth.
Relentless campaigning by Biloela community members, repeated legal interventions and global support were eventually met with a positive outcome. On 10th June 2022, Nadesalingam Murugappan (Nades), his wife Kokilapathmapriya Nadesalingam (Priya) and their two daughters Tharnicaa and Kopika, returned to Biloela following the decision by the interim home affairs minister Jim Chalmers, to grant them a bridging visa. The family has since been granted permanent residency and Nades has returned to work at the local meatworks.
On 21 October 2019, it was revealed in Senate estimates that the Australian government had spent approximately $30 million re-opening Christmas Island Detention Center and filling it with more than 100 staff, while the only detainees were the four members of the Nadesalingam Family.