Nadesalingam and Priya with their two children. Credit:Tamil Refugee Council

The Australian government's devotion to its inhumane and racist refugee policies continues, with a Tamil family living in Queensland the latest to be met with unfathomable violence and heavy handed tactics from Border Force officials.

Priya and her husband Nadesalingam, who have been in Australia on bridging visas since 2013 and 2012 respectively, have lived in the Queensland community of Biloela for several years. They have two daughters who were both born here, 2 year old Kopiga and 9 month old Dharuniga. In the early hours of the morning of March 5, the family was raided by police officers, Border Force officials and Serco guards. They were given just ten minutes to pack (an act bereft of compassion at the best of times, but particularly so when there are two infants involved) before being forcibly removed to the Melbourne Immigration Transit Authority (MITA) more than 1500km away.

A statement released by the Tamil Refugee Council reports that Priya and her husband were forced to sign voluntary deportation documents under threat of having not just their access to a phone removed (an essential tool of communication between them and their advocates) but also of being separated from one another and deported individually.

“We are in house arrest here,” Priya told the Tamil Refugee Council. “We have to stay in our room. The children can't go outside. There are three guards outside the room. We are living as prisoners. The children are distressed and disoriented. They don't understand what is happening. My daughter is asking to go to her friend’s house in Biloela.”