Tamil family facing deportation to Lanka gets injunction until Friday

The deportation of a Sri Lankan Tamil family, fighting a legal battle to stay in Australia, has been delayed until Friday after it was granted an injunction by a court pending hearing on the youngest daughter's appeal for renewal of her visa. Tamil couple, Priya and Nadesalingam along with their two Australian-born toddlers is fighting to remain in Australia because they fear persecution in Sri Lanka.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday refused to intervene to stop the family from being deported to Sri Lanka, saying an "exception here or there" would only increase people-smuggling trade. The family is currently held at a detention center in Christmas Island.

The federal court in Melbourne extended the latest injunction until Friday after the family's lawyers argued that two-year-old Tharnicaa's plea had not been considered by Immigration Minister David Coleman. According to the ABC News, the court heard the minister had advised the family's lawyers that the department would not allow the girl to apply to renew her visa and that her case had been assessed.

The family was advised by the Government to abandon the case preventing the transfer "because it is futile", their lawyer Angel Aleksov was quoted as saying by the ABC. In a hearing last week, family's lawyer Angel Aleksov told the court that Tharnicaa had not been assessed by immigration officials as to whether she was entitled to protection, the news report said.

Priya and Nadesalingam arrived in Australia by boat separately in 2012 and 2013 seeking asylum. Their daughters, born in Australia, have never been to Sri Lanka. The Australian government's hardline immigration policies, include turning away refugees arriving by boat and de facto offshore detention, both measures condemned by the United Nations.

According to the Department of Home Affairs, the family has been comprehensively assessed a number of times and consistently been found not to be genuine refugees. Hundreds of people participated in rallies across Australia on Sunday, urging the government to let the family stay. Chanting "let them stay", they marched through the cities and towns.

The Department of Home Affairs had earlier ordered the family to be sent to Sri Lanka. However, a Federal Court on Friday extended an interim injunction against the deportation until Wednesday, following which the aircraft on which the family was traveling to Sri Lanka was grounded before it left the Australian airspace.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)