Court blocks Australia from deporting Tamil toddlers
A dramatic late-night call from an Australian judge to a plane bound for Sri Lanka has temporarily spared a family of four -- including two Aussie-born toddlers -- from deportation and fuelled a political firestorm Down Under.
Australia’s conservative government had ordered the Tamil family to be taken from immigration detention in Melbourne, put on a plane and deported to Sri Lanka late on Thursday.
But an injunction made by a phone call from Federal Judge Heather Riley after the plane took off forced pilots to land the aircraft and deposit the family in the far north city of Darwin.
The case has become a new flashpoint over the Australian government’s hardline immigration policies, which include turning away refugees arriving by boat and de facto offshore detention, both measures condemned by the United Nations.
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