The 8000 'forced movements' on Australian flights in two years

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The 8000 'forced movements' on Australian flights in two years

By Nick O'Malley

The Department of Home Affairs used Australian airlines and charter companies for more than  8000 involuntary movements of people in the immigration detention system, including transfers and deportations, over two years between July 2017 and May 2019.

The figure was revealed in departmental documents secured via a freedom of information request by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, which is seeking to apply pressure to airlines to review or abandon their contracts with the department to move people against their will.

The 8000 figure included anyone who had previously made an asylum claim and was being deported or removed from the country, transferred within the country or moved between onshore detention and facilities in Nauru or Manus Island via air.

The Biloela Tamil family at the centre of a deportation row.

The Biloela Tamil family at the centre of a deportation row.Credit: Facebook

The ACCR's campaign comes as controversy grows about the plight of a Tamil family which is facing deportation having been removed from their home in Biloela in Queensland and transferred to Christmas Island and placed in detention.

The family will remain in Australia until at least September 18 after Federal Court Justice Mordy Bromberg in Melbourne on Friday extended an injunction blocking the federal government from deporting two-year-old Tharunicaa until 4pm on Wednesday, September 18.

The injunction applies only to Tharunicaa but her lawyers have been assured the family will not be separated. Tharunicaa is in detention on Christmas Island with her parents Priya and Nadesalingam and four-year-old sister Kopika.

The ACCR, which campaigns on social, industrial and climate issues by having investors vote to influence the policies of major companies, will put forward a resolution at the Qantas annual general meeting in October that would see Qantas review its “involuntary transportation” process, taking UN human rights guidelines into consideration.

A statement supporting the resolution says in part: “As shareholders, we are concerned about the material, reputational, financial and legal risks of our company’s participation in involuntary airline deportation, removal and transfer activities, as a service provider to the Australian Department of Home Affairs. ACCR is concerned that these activities expose our company to the probability of complicity in serious human rights violations.''

A spokesman for Qantas said: “These are very complex and emotive matters but it’s not for airlines to adjudicate on who should and shouldn’t get to stay in Australia after the government and courts have made their decisions.”

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The ACCR’s director of human rights, Dhakshayini Sooriyakumaran, told The Sydney Morning Herald:  “This is Qantas’ moment to take a leadership position on forced deportation - an issue that has been viscerally brought to our attention through the heartbreaking story of the Tamil family from the community of Biloela.

“The Biloela community has shown us what the true spirit of Australia is, and it’s now time for airlines such as Qantas, Virgin and Skytraders to step up. This could be transformational for human rights best practice in the airline industry.

“Qantas shareholders have no information about their company’s involvement in these 8000 movements which are part of a system that has been roundly criticised by domestic and international human rights bodies."

Last year a more far-reaching resolution sponsored by the ACCR, which called for the suspension of involuntary flights for the department, won just 6.43 percent of the vote at the Qantas AGM.

Ms Sooriyakumaran said that the ACCR expected to win more votes for this resolution having consulted with advisers to proxy voters. She said any substantial increase in the vote could command the attention of the board.

Last year an ACCR shareholder resolution prompted BHP to review its membership of industry organisations that reject climate science, eventually leading to the company abandoning its membership of the World Coal Association.

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