<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/nov/28/priya-nadesalingam-hits-out-at-migration-bill-saying-biloela-return-impossible-without-mobile-phone>
"Priya Nadesalingam has spoken out against the Albanese government’s
immigration detention bill, saying her family’s return to Biloela would have
been “impossible” without access to a mobile phone while detained.
Nadesalingam, alongside her husband, Nades, and their two young daughters, was
taken from the Queensland town in March 2018 and placed in immigration
detention while the then Coalition government sought to have the Tamil asylum
seekers deported to Sri Lanka.
The family was held in the Christmas Island detention centre for two years,
before being moved to community detention in Perth in mid-2021.
The Nadesalingams were released and returned to Biloela in 2022 after the new
Labor government fulfilled an election promise to allow them to stay in
Australia, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, saying at the time he was
“proud” of the outcome.
But Nadesalingam said that had the government’s proposed laws been in force at
the time her family’s fate could have been different.
“It would have been impossible to do anything if I didn’t have access to my
phone [in detention],” she told
Guardian Australia.
“It was because of the phone that I was able to find my way back to Biloela, it
was how I was able to maintain contact with supports and lawyers, and to let
people know my daughter needed to be hospitalised.
“We needed phones to effectively communicate with our lawyers, especially as
some things happened very quickly.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
