Thousands protest across Australia against removal of Tamil family

Thousands of people protested in cities and townsacross Australia Sunday against the government's efforts to deport aTamil family back to Sri Lanka.The asylum seeker family of four, including two children aged 4 and 2born in Australia, are being held in a detention centre on remoteChristmas Island while a last-minute appeal against their deportationis heard this week in a Melbourne court.The parents say their family will face persecution as Tamils if theyreturn to Sri Lanka.Greens leader Richard Di Natale accused the government of cruelty indeporting the family, who are supported by the community in theremote Queensland village of Biloela where they had lived for thepast four years."This is senseless cruelty, this is cruelty for the sake of beingcruel," Di Natale told a rally in Melbourne, the AustralianAssociated Press reported.Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has refused to budge despitemounting pressure from the community and opposition politicians tolet the family stay. Dutton said Friday that the parents arrived illegally by boat andsuccessive courts had ruled the family did not qualify as refugees sothey were "not owed protection" by Australia.Priya, Nadesalingam and their Australian born children Kopika, 4, andTharunicaa, 2, were at the centre of dramatic scenes on Friday whenmigration officials bundled them onto a midnight government flightfrom Melbourne to Sri Lanka.They were offloaded in the far-northern city of Darwin after a courtgranted an injunction against the deportation, but Saturday they werethen flown to Christmas Island.Speaking by phone to the national broadcaster ABC by phone fromChristmas Island Sunday, Priya said they were all alone in the centreand the children were constantly crying.The family's lawyer, Carina Ford, said she understood they were theonly inmates of the Christmas Island detention centre.She said keeping them behind bars so far away made it more difficultto present their case in a Melbourne court before the injunction endson Wednesday. The case centres on 2-year-old Tharunicaa, who has not been assessedfor a protection visa.