Tamil family should be released from detention ‘where their little girl’s getting sick’

The Tamil family whose three-year-old daughter had to be airlifted to Perth should be released from detention on Christmas Island, according to Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness Jason Clare. The family has been in detention since March 2018 after their visas expired and their Biloela home in rural central Queensland was raided by authorities. Friends of the family say the girl had been visibly ill for 10 days before detention centre staff took her to a medical facility on the island despite repeated requests by her mother for medical attention. “The bigger issue here though … is that this little girl’s been locked up for three years,” Mr Clare said. He pointed out the girl’s father worked in the abattoir in Biloela, had a second job at the local supermarket and volunteered at Vinnies on the weekend, while his wife volunteered at the local hospital. “We talk in the federal parliament all the time about how do we get people to move from the city to the bush, how do we get people who come here on a visa to go and work on some of those tough jobs, whether it’s picking fruit or slaughtering animals in abattoirs in the regions. “This bloke did it, raised a family loved by the local community, and how do we treat them? Lock them up on Christmas Island where their little girl’s getting sick”.

from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3x5oPhS