Friends, I can’t tell you how hard it was to say goodbye to Priya, Nades, Kopi and Tharni this week, knowing how uncertain their future is right now.
1,500 days ago today, guards snatched this family from their Biloela home and locked them away in a Melbourne detention centre.
Then, after his surprise 2019 re-election, Scott Morrison’s Ministers had guards separate Priya from her QLD-born girls.
They forced her into a white van, like the ones the Sri Lankan security forces have used to abduct, torture and murder Tamil people for decades.
They dragged her onto an unmarked plane as her girls watched in terror.
We can’t let this happen again. Please join me in taking urgent action now.
Only swift legal action, made possible by thousands of ordinary Australians, stopped Mr Morrison’s Ministers forcing this family from Australia to danger.
But when a judge ordered the plane to land in Darwin, Mr Morrison’s Ministers forced Priya and her family to an empty Christmas Island detention centre.
They held them in an isolated detention centre until little Tharni was so sick, she had to be medically evacuated to Perth. She could have died.
With the election now set for May 21, time is running out. Please email your MP or Senators now.
For the sake of the girls, my husband and I had to hide our fear and worry when we said goodbye to Priya and Nades this week.
We focused on the girl’s excitement about the Easter Bunny and their upcoming birthdays. We promised we’d see each other in Biloela soon.
“I’ll be coming to Biloela and you’ll be celebrating,” Kopi told me!
With Scott Morrison’s Ministers denying four year old Tharni the same bridging visa as her Mum, Dad and sister - the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle that would allow them to come safely home to Biloela - I’m terrified that Mr Morrison is waiting until after the election to force this family from Australia to danger.
Anthony Albanese and Kristina Keneally have repeatedly confirmed their commitment to bringing Priya, Nades, Kopi and Tharni #HometoBilo, and a growing number of independent candidates are speaking out too.
But as I’ve said many times before, we can’t afford to gamble this beautiful family’s future on the outcome of an election that no-one can predict.
Insist that they speak up to bring this family home to Biloela now, while there’s time.
Priya’s unshakeable faith that we will all be reunited in Biloela gives me courage to keep up our fight to bring them home safely, to the QLD town where they are welcome, wanted and needed.
But it’s the actions that you and the (almost) 600,000 people who have signed this petition take that give us all the strength to keep going.
For everything you are doing to help bring this beautiful family safely #HometoBilo - thank you.
With hope,
Angela