Episode 6: Cockatoo Homeland
Welcome home. With a Labor victory at the 2022 federal election, we join the family as they return home to Biloela. It’s a teary, frantic, and joyous reunion for them, but what does this mean for other families like the Nadeslinagams? Is Labor’s election win the victory that people think it is?
In this episode we explore what our government is still doing to not have to accept asylum seekers into our country, what made this family and this campaign so special, as well as what’s next for the family.
Media
Brisbane Airport
Boarding the plane to Biloela
Landing in Biloela
Enthusiastic participation from Jay
Resources
Key Resources
Get a run down of the Border Surveillance Industry and how it is shaping our world.
Asylum for sale - but at what cost?
Other References
Overseas Public Information Campaigns
Irregular migration, borders, and the moral geographies of migration management - Dr Josh Watkins
Bordering Borderscapes - Dr Josh Watkins
https://www.adnews.com.au/campaigns/arnott-s-moments-via-saatchi-and-saatchi
https://junkee.com/zero-chance-asylum-seeker-campaign/318516
https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/publication/cost-australias-asylum-policy
Sri Lanka & Australia
https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/penny-wong/media-release/support-sri-lanka
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/18/sri-lanka-gift-boats-scott-morrison
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/19/kevin-rudd-asylum-boats-png
https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-61782866
https://theconversation.com/ukraine-refugee-crisis-exposes-racism-and-contradictions-in-the-definition-of-human-179150
https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/climate-change-and-disasters.html
Transcript
Thinesh
Hey folks, just a warning that this episode has a couple of swears. Please make sure to hide your kids, unless they’re cool!
Jay
Hey there, how you going? Can I please get an omelette…
Café Worker
Have it here?
Jay
Yeah, thank you.
Jay
It’s the morning after the 2022 federal election. It was a bit of a late night, so we haven’t slept very much, but neither have the Home to Bilo team.
Angela Fredericks
I’m talking, doing Channel 9 at 1, so ABC are on their way out here.
Thinesh
We’re meeting up with them at a local bakery in Biloela. Angela’s preparing for media interviews, and the rest of the team are just taking a bit of a moment for themselves. For legal eagle Simone, it’s finally hitting her that the Nadesalingam family will actually come home to Biloela.
Simone Cameron
I feel like it's sort of, it's sinking in for me now. Like, like, last night, I just felt like, sort of there. But also, like, I was a spectator watching us. And I felt really like, just like, I couldn't quite trust that it was happening or felt a bit numb about it all because I was like, this is, you know, just that thing that we've all been wanting for so long. But this can't really be it.
Jay
The vibe is exhausted but relieved. That is until Bronwyn brings over a Biloela local to our table.
Bronwyn Dendle
We’re just happy that we have our family home.
Thinesh
Now, this person knows Bronwyn and Simone, but she hasn’t been involved with the campaign. And what follows is a conversation that completely changes the mood of the morning. Now we can’t use her voice, she didn’t give us consent, but we want to show you the sort of questions she asked.
Jay
Now, we’ve got a voice actor to voice her lines using the exact words and, in a tone, as close to her tone as they can match and with every question she asked, the home to Bilo team answer.
She asked questions like…
Biloela Local
So, what exception do they put them under? An exception because of what?
But there are so many in the same space of not having got other visas, not having got other permission and then having to go home when the time comes.
What confused me about this is he amount of time that they were here in Biloela, why did they never get their visa changed to a working visa?
So that’s another thing, the Tamil’s who have gone back because they got a temporary protection visa. What’s the outcome? Where’s the evidence of that? How come that hasn’t been brought to the table?
Vashini Riswan
I am sitting here…
Thinesh
This is Vashini, from the Home to Bilo Team who is also a Tamil asylum seeker.
Vashini Riswan
I’ve seen people killed...
Biloela Local
So how did you get to stay here?
Vashini Riswan
Um I went through the VISA system, and applied for my protection visa and um I got a protection.
Biloela Local
Uh huh, so why are you different to our people?
Vashini Riswan
It’s just the system, its just the legal system here...
Biloela Local
But I can’t understand how using the system that we have in place… You’re allowed to stay here in Australia? You’re still under a temporary protection visa and that runs out? When does that run out?
Vashini Riswan
This year.
Biloela Local
This year? So, this year, you will have to return to Sri Lanka?
Vashini Riswan
I can’t
Biloela Local
Why can’t? We won’t let you return to Sri Lanka. Or Sri Lanka won’t let you back in?
Vashini Riswan
It’s not safe for me to return to Sri Lanka.
Biloela Local
But why is it not safe? Considering I can buy a ticket and go and have a lovely holiday?
Bronwn Dendle
Because you’re not a Tamil.
Vashini Riswan
Because you’re not a Tamil. You’re just a foreign person. You are not a Tamil.
Biloela Local
So as a Tamil when you get off the plane... You’re not allowed to have a job? You’re not allowed to have an education… You’re not allowed to…?
Vashini Riswan
I will be persecuted, I will be discriminated, I will be seen as less than other people, I can’t have freedom, I can’t speak my words.
Biloela Local
When you say I can’t speak my words what does that mean?
Vashini Riswan
I don’t have freedom.
Biloela Local
But you don’t use your language here either.
Bronwyn Dendle
Yes she does.
Vashini Riswan
Yes I do. You can go vote and say I support red team, or blue team or One Nation.
Biloela Local
Yep
Vashini Riswan
If I do that against the majority government in Sri Lanka, I’ll be shot to death in front of everyone and nobody will come and punish them. Do you want me to die like that?
Simone Cameron
It's a legal right to seek asylum, one, I'm damn sure that you would exercise I would exercise if we ever needed to.
Biloela Local
But what I’m saying is as a country, if that's our basis for people to be allowed to just fully come in and stay in Australia, then we have to allow every Chinese person and every North Korean person and every Russian person and every Ghanese person to come…
Simone Cameron
Would you say that we don't have to help anyone because we can't help everybody like that logic doesn't…
Biloela Local
No, no, no Simone, never would I say that, and I'm not even saying that. I'm just, what I've never have never understood about this is why was there not a pathway where once you're in here as a temporary protection visa, Is there not a path? Because I've seen so many come through Biloela who have come on one visa move to another visa, become Australians and yee ha. Thank you. Fantastic. That's amazing. And that's what we want. It's absolutely what we want is everybody to be here.
Simone Cameron
Our government instigated a system and the labour government's done it previously too, our system of temporary protection, which doesn't give anyone any certainty in life. And it certainly doesn't give them the chance to transition to other permanent visas. So, our government made that choice to do that. And that's what you know, then that's the reality that people there's…
Biloela Local
My mum is waiting for me, so I’d love to stay. Love to stay,
Simone Cameron
Yeah alright, see you later.
Jay
You alright?
Vashini Riswan
Yeah.
Simone Cameron
I can’t believe that. I’m sorry, that is my fault.
Vashini Riswan
It’s okay guys.
Simone Cameron
That is everything that’s wrong with our Country.
Bronwyn Dendle
I feel so bad, I just thought it might be an interesting perspective to call her over and draw her into a conversation.
Jay
But it is, because that’s probably what a lot of people think and those are the questions that people have. Like, why can’t they stay?
Bronwyn Dendle
Kudos to her for having the guts, to an extent, for saying what we have been up against, but silent. But very rarely, except for her, very rarely would people be so blatant in saying what they think to us.
Thinesh
Oh, my fucking god.
Jay
I was so anxious the entire time.
Thinesh
Yeah
Jay
I don’t know why; we should be able to have these discussions but…
Thinesh
That was fucked up.
Jay
Yeah. Jump in the car, let’s keep talking.
Thinesh
The fact that Vashini even had to say I will get shot.
Jay
Yeah
Thinesh
And this woman just… was like “Oh well I can just buy a ticket to Sri Lanka”.
Jay
Actually, now I think about it, it was like she was pulling out every card under the sun to explain why these people should not be allowed to stay. There was no, it didn’t feel like there was an ounce of compassion for humans.
Thinesh
I think she placed a lot of weight and importance on rules.
Jay
Yeah, I guess from a lay person’s perspective, it’s unfair that the immigration minister gets to choose.
Thinesh
You, okay?
Jay
I’m just really annoyed and upset by that woman, and I just hate that she has that power over me, because she shouldn’t. Maybe it’s just like every person of colours experience in Australia is summed up in the way that woman talked to us and spoke to Vashini it was just... Really bad… Mmmm.
Thinesh
You, okay?
Jay
Yeah
Thinesh
Yeah, you were trying to bring me back down to earth about what this country is like, and what this town is actually like, and this morning’s conversation is kind of an affirmation of what you were saying yesterday.
Jay
We clearly have a long way to go to change this narrative around asylum seekers.
Thinesh
Even though the Labour party has won and has promised to bring the family back to Bilo. It’s not all good news, because the Nadesalingams are just four of thousands of asylum seekers without permanent protection in Australia.
Titles
You Have Been Told a Lie. To stop the deportation of a Tamil family. Let them in, let them stay. Protecting Australia’s borders, hypocrisy. Detained on Christmas Island. The United Nations Convention on Refugee’s. This is our Country. We are a generous open-hearted people.
Thinesh
I’m Thinesh Thillainadarajah.
Jay
I’m Jay Ooi.
Thinesh
This is episode 6. Cockatoo Homeland.
Angela Fredricks
Can we take a selfie?
Jay
After another night in Bilo, Thinesh and I bid farewell to the Home to Bilo team.
Angela Fredricks
Okay, we’ll see you later, have a safe trip!
Thinesh
But less than a week later, we get some very interesting news.
News Reporting
A families wish to go home to Bilo finally granted. The interim Home Affairs Minister called Biloela with the breakthrough. Priya, Nades, Kopika, Tharnicaa Nadesalingam are coming home.
Jay
And this is very good news!
Thinesh
Yeah, but that’s just part of it. Here’s what happened when acting Immigration Minister Jim Chalmers called the Home to Bilo campaign team that day.
Angela Fredericks
Had the pleasantries, and then it was very much, you know, the family is going to be allowed to return to Biloela. So immediately, there was like this sense of, they're coming home, and there was this excitement.
Bronwyn Dendle
And then we were like, what Visa is it?
News Reporting
Using ministerial intervention to intervene, Jim Chalmers is granting the family bridging visas while they work towards the resolution of their immigration status meaning the legal marathon continues.
Simone Cameron
So then, when he granted four bridging visas, I was yeah, quite disappointed and a bit like what how could they do this? Is it going to be the case that this is never going to be over that when you know that we're never going to get these permanent visas.
Angela Fredericks
So, we had this high, and then we sort of crashed, and we were like, oh, this hasn't actually changed their visa status, it hasn't actually meant that they're safe.
Bronwyn Dendle
It was really interesting, because all of us were kind of like what, and had the cameras not been on us, I would have gone. What the actual heck is going on here? Like, why where's the permanent visa? What are they playing at? You know, like, it would have been a very different sort of a reaction.
Jay
Which is like, very different to the overwhelmingly positive news stories?
Thinesh
But I guess the key thing here is, after being in detention for over 4 years, the family can finally return home.
Jay
We are recording. Okay Thinesh, I’m just calling you because I know you hate being called but its just quicker than texting.
Thinesh
It honestly gives me anxiety, if it wasn’t you calling, I probably wouldn’t pick up. I’d let it go to voicemail.
Jay
I’m glad you picked up for me. Okay, so Angela has sent through the details for the flight that the family are gonna be on when they return to Biloela.
Thinesh
So, does this mean we’re going?
Jay
We have to, right?
Thinesh
I feel like I personally need to thank Priya for the ladoos that she gave us.
Jay
True, and we also just wanna be there for this very historic moment. The flight is from Brisbane to Thangool Airport.
Thinesh
Thangool?
Jay
It’s like ten – fifteen minutes from Biloela. We visited Angela when she was at the polling booth there. We’re on a Metro 23 which seats 19 passengers.
Thinesh
Oh yeah yeah. Now I’m like, slightly concerned about making it there alive but okay.
Jay
So, 10th of June to the 13th of June, shall I book the tickets?
Thinesh
Let’s do it.
Jay
So, it's Friday the 10th of June. We're at Brissie airport and uh having a bite to eat before the Nadesalingams and the Home to Bilo crew arrive to fly to Biloela.
Thinesh
I'm enjoying my lamb Greek salad.
Jay
I'm a bit envious of your food
Thinesh
Would you like a tomato?
Jay
You don’t like tomato?
Thinesh
Not really.
Jay
Yes please.
Thinesh
Shall we, uh, make it to the gate?
Jay
Okay. How do I say how are you again?
Thinesh
Eppadi sugam?
Jay
Eppadi sugam
Thinesh
Yeah - nalla sugam!
Jay
Eppadi sugam!
Thinesh
Nalla sugam!
Airport Announcement.
Rows 1 to 15 will use the forward stairs.
Jay
You are going to see them before I do.
Thinesh
They are here. Hello!
Simone Cameron
Oh my god! how are you? Great to see you both!
Jay
Hiiiiiii.
Simone Cameron
How are you?
Thinesh
Go!
Jay
Eppadi sugam?
Priya
Nalla sugam!
Kopika
Nalla sugam!
Jay
Eppadi sugam!
Nades
Laughs.
Jay
I’ve just learned one phrase. Hello! Nice to meet you!
Jay
And then we just all wait around nervously to board the plane.
Thinesh
Are you nervous, or happy? Or?
Nades
No, I am Happy. I am at a loss for words because of the happiness. We were also expecting to celebrate Tharnicaa’s Birthday in Biloela. We need to thank the Labor government for giving us that opportunity. Tharnicaa wants a pink party, that what she says she wants, and that’s what she will get.
Jay
Do you want to hear yourself? Okay you gotta put these on.
Kopika
Okay. Hello, I can hear my voice?
Jay
Who else’s voice do you wanna hear? Do you wanna hear your sisters voice?
Tharnicaa
Hello.
Jay
Do you wanna say something else to her?
Tharnicaa
Do you like a flower?
Kopika
Yes!
Thinesh
How are you feeling?
Priya
I am happy. I am happy that I am seeing my family. I waited for four and a half years. I dreamed of this. I was not expecting a day like this to come. The Biloela dirt beneath my feet, breathing the freshest air.
Airport Announcement
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, Link Airways would like to welcome customers who are travelling on Biloela for FC4…
Jay
Then we get on this tiny plane that will take the family home.
Priya
Simone, my four and half years…
Thinesh
Emotions run high, particularly for Priya as the plane takes off, and as it touches down.
Priya
When I got married, I felt joy. When I became a mother, I felt joy. Similarly, when I arrived at Thangool airport, it was like I felt joy for the third time. Why was I put on this earth? I realised I was here to meet this moment. Thousands of people have shown me love. my life felt whole that day. I was not expecting this love to make me whole.
Nades
The way butterflies freely fly, because we are now no longer under people’s control, we can make our own decisions.
Jay
As we exit the plane, we see a huge crowd of supporters with signs and cheers gathered just behind the airport fence. And as the Nadesalingam’s disembarked, they’re greeted with this.
Crowd
Cheering
Jay
Nades waves enthusiastically at the crowd. Priya holds Kopika’s hand and blows a kiss to the locals. Tharnicaa waves timidly as Nades grabs her hand. They stand together as a family for a moment before Priya pulls Nades closer. He gives her a big hug.
Thinesh
They finally embracing everyone who has come to welcome them home. Priya falls to the ground and greets it with a kiss. “I’m touching the place” she says.
Thinesh
How are you feeling?
Simone Cameron
Just ecstatic!
Thinesh
Surreal?
Simone Cameron
Yes!
Jay
Then there’s a quick press conference
Bronwyn Dendle
It’s a special day for me personally because I haven’t had the opportunity to see my friends in the flesh since they were unnecessarily taken from us over four years ago.
Angela Fredericks
This is the first flight, as Priya said, that they got to walk through the front of the airport.
Simone Cameron
Today we celebrate, but the next step is to make sure that we don’t do this anyone else in Australia ever again.
Priya
Thank you to all in Bilo community. Wonderful friends. I am starting new life. I am joining my family. So happy. Thank you!
Jay
And then the family head to the house in Biloela that had been waiting for them, a place they can finally call home.
Angela Fredericks
You ready?
Kids
Yeah!
Angela Fredericks
Ready to see your house?
Kids
Yeah!
Angela Fredericks
We are going to go into the driveway… This is your new house! This is your new house!
Simone Cameron
Hi! Welcome home.
Thinesh
Now that the family are back in Bilo, the campaign team aren’t stopping.
Jay
Yeah, I remember a few of the Home to Bilo team talking about how you can’t unlearn what you’ve learnt. They’re ready to essentially go up against the government for all the policies that are endangering asylum seekers, and for all the asylum seekers who need protection.
Simone Cameron
Yeah, I think we've had two trips that we've organised to Canberra to advocate for people who are still waiting for resolution of their status for permanent visas and also for people that have been refused even Temporary Protection visas. So, we will definitely keep advocating for them because they’re all part of the same you know, Nades and Priya were a part of that group.
Bronwyn Dendle
We’ve been, you know, meeting about, you know, this rally another delegation to the ministers and, you know, taking out some ads and starting to really, we're starting to mobilise our database and our social media following just to start kind of going okay guess what, we thought it was over but it’s not.
Thinesh
But they’ve got quite a fight on their hands. In the press conference earlier, Simone Cameron spoke about how they want to make sure what happened to this family won’t ever happen again to anyone else, but what happened to this family is a huge anomaly.
Jay
Yeah, just because they’re home safe doesn’t change any of the systems and policies that meant they were taken, almost deported twice, and then detained for four years in the first place.
Thinesh
What’s worse, there are even more systems and tactics our government uses to aid the responsibility of asylum seekers - many that Priya and Nades never encountered.
Jay
Gee, this is what the Home to Bilo team is up against? This feels a bit David and Goliath but okay, what are these tactics?
Thinesh
We’re going to touch upon 4 key ones. First up, the most peculiar one: Public information campaigns.
Jay
Thinesh, what are public information campaigns...?
Thinesh
They’re essentially advertising campaigns but for a specific government purpose. Remember when everyone was checking COVID cases daily?
Jay
I…don’t want to remember.
Thinesh
Well state governments used social media and ads and press conferences to keep people informed about not just COVID cases, but restriction changes as well. They want to influence a particular behaviour or way of thinking, in this case, you are following COVID restrictions. So, they run a campaign to get that to happen.
In the same way, the federal government uses these sorts of campaigns to stop asylum seekers coming to Australia.
Jay
But…they’re not in Australia. They’re running these campaigns overseas?
Thinesh
Yeah. In many countries, like Sri Lanka, where asylum seekers may come from.
Josh Watkins
So Australia has been utilizing Overseas Public Information Campaigns since at least 1994. Their first campaign was in Beihai, China.
Thinesh
This is Dr Josh Watkins, lecturer of global studies at the National University of Singapore, whose work focusses on immigration and border security policy.
Josh Watkins
…and my research has primarily focussed on Australia.
So, there have been a number of campaigns in Sri Lanka, and they've used a number of different tactics, from radio advertisements, banners, posters, leaflets, social media campaigns in Sri Lanka, YouTube campaigns in Tamil, in Sri Lanka.
We don't know all the campaigns, we don’t know all the tactics, because very often these are secret campaigns that the Australian government doesn't even advertise that they're funding. So, very often the Australian government doesn't implement these campaigns themselves, but rather the Australian government hires either the International Organization for Migration, or multinational marketing and advertising firms, communication firms.
Thinesh
Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay, Jay… Don’t you work in marketing?
Jay
I do, yes.
Thinesh
You should recognise some of these companies involved.
Josh Watkins
So, Porter Novelli, if I'm pronouncing that right, N-O-V-E-L-L-I. Universal McCann. Wise Strategic Consulting. Leo Burnett. I'm not sure... This is a famous company, that's my understanding, but I'm not 100% sure how it's pronounced, but S-A-A-T-C-H-I, how is that pronounced, Jay, do you know?
Jay
It's Saatchi & Saatchi.
Josh Watkins
Saatchi & Saatchi.
Jay
Thinesh
No, not Arnott’s biscuits! I love vegemite shapes!
Jay
Ewwww.
Thinesh
Did you say ew?
Jay
I’m not a shapes person!
Ben Doherty
And you'll see Australia continue to spend money running advertising campaigns, videos popping up on people's computers, even sort of board games for people in Sri Lanka to play about, no way to get to Australia to try and discourage asylum seekers, boarding boats and seeking asylum in Australia.
Thinesh
This is Ben Doherty from The Guardian Australia who has been to Sri Lanka and seen these ads firsthand.
Ben Doherty
And it's things like you can go to Colombo or Negombo, which is a fishing village north of the capitol, and you'll see huge, big billboards saying, "No Way to Get to Australia." All of those sorts of things. It's this sort of really overt presence of Australia maintaining and almost pushing its border all the way to the shoreline of Sri Lanka. This kind of externalizing the Australian border as far away as possible to try and deter that.
Thinesh
There have been so many campaigns that have run in Sri Lanka like the Don't be Deceived by the Lies of People Smugglers campaign, or the Don't be Sorry campaign. And after each one, they do market research to see whether it was effective.
Jay
Yeah, like a post campaign analysis.
Thinesh
You are such a fucking wanker.
Jay
Excuse me, just because I know the terms for things.
Thinesh
Maybe you should know more about the politics of our everyday world!
Josh Watkins
So, what they do is they try to measure slogan retention. Like how many people remembered the information in these campaigns? How many people remember the campaign slogans that they heard in the radio or saw on TV?
Jay
Yeah, this is all typical marketing stuff - each campaign has an objective, and at the end, you want to see whether that objective was effective, so you run research to see whether attitudes have changed, or if people remember the information they’ve seen. I just feel a bit dirty that marketing is being used in this way.
Thinesh
Marketing tactics have always been a bit smarmy, but to show you the extent our government goes to, here’s an example of a campaign in Indonesia between 2009 to 2014.
Josh Watkins
… and this is a campaign that was actually not targeting potential irregular migrants, but instead, targeting what the Australian government referred to as potential people smugglers.
Thinesh
What the campaign did was to try and convince people smugglers that it was a moral and a religious sin to transport refugees to Australia.
Jay
Gross.
Thinesh
Smarmy AF. The International Organisation for Migration or the IOM, the company running the campaign, used radio ads, billboards, branded merch, but one thing they discovered was that these fishing communities really wanted family photos, but they often couldn’t afford them.
Josh Watkins
So, the IOM organized a family photo day, where they would take family photos, and gift those framed photos to the families with the slogan, with the anti-irregular migration slogans on them.
Here's some examples, "Smuggling irregular migrants is a sin." Another one is, "Proud fishermen are observant of religion and the law," others are, "Sorry, not me, I know what's wrong”, and they gifted coffee mugs, shirts, jackets, calendars.
So, every day you look at the calendar and you remind yourself that, according to the IOM, transporting refugees and asylum seekers to Australia is a sin.
Thinesh
And another example relates to Sri Lanka. Jay, I remember you posted about the Zero Chance Campaign on your Instagram back in 2021.
Jay
I did! It was this short film competition in Sri Lanka run by the Australian government, where entrants would make a film about “Illegal Migration to Australia” and you could win a GoPro and a Drone and stuff. They even made this stupid Pac-man style game where you’re trying to evade border patrol, but you can’t, like you always lose.
Thinesh
So fucking bizarre.
Jay
So bizarre.
Thinesh
But guess where else our money goes.
Jay
Where?
Thinesh
International aid.
Jay
I mean…of course.
Thinesh
No Jay, as in, this is the second tactic our government uses to not have to deal with asylum seekers on our shores - giving aid strategically.
Josh Watkins
Starting in the 1990s, Australia started shifting its aid profile, the countries that it gives humanitarian aid to, to match where they thought displaced peoples may flee from. Whether it be a source country or transit country.
Now did that help displaced populations? Very often it did, of course. Am I against humanitarian aid? Of course, I'm not. But we have to understand that this is an explicit strategy to keep people living encamped in refugee camps.
Jay
And to think we gave aid out of the goodness of our own hearts.
Thinesh
I feel like Aid has always been political. And of course, this goes for Sri Lanka as well. Less than a fortnight after the Nadesalingam family returned to Biloela, Australia gave Sri Lanka 50 million dollars in aid.
News Reporting
Breaking news this hour… Australia will provide 50 million dollars in development assistance. Penny Wong saying that we have a close and longstanding relationship with Sri Lanka.
Thinesh
50 fucking million dollars.
Jay
It’s done… I feel like out of the numbers in this show that is not the biggest amount of money.
Thinesh
No, it’s not, I mean the SERCO contract definitely takes the cake.
Not only that, we’ve gifted patrol boats, drones, GPS trackers, even trained their military in the past, all whilst knowing what each government has done and is doing to Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Ben Doherty
And we knew from international sources, we knew from UN Special Rapporteurs that oppression and repression and violence against the Tamil minority was still continuing in Sri Lanka.
But the Australian government chose political expediency. They wanted Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan authorities, they wanted the Sri Lankan navy onsite to stop Tamil boats leaving that country, and they were prepared to do a deal with that regime.
Thinesh
But let’s say despite the public information campaigns, and despite the aid, people still choose to flee.
Jay
Which people do.
Thinesh
Before the boats even get to our waters, our navy is working hard to turn these boats back around.
Ben Doherty
Often what we've seen most recently is boats with Tamil asylum seekers on them turned around at sea, basically, people barely given a chance. Everybody knows, and it's been documented over years, the problems with making these sorts of protection claim assessments at sea, that people aren't afforded a proper access to legal counsel, not afforded proper access to interpreters. They're not able to fairly present their case. And I think the idea that en masse, all Tamil asylum seekers are being returned to Sri Lanka suggests that it's not a robust, it's not a fair process that Australia's hasty return of asylum seekers directly to Sri Lanka is hugely problematic and out of step with international standards.
Thinesh
But okay, the boat somehow makes it past our navy and into Australian waters. That’s when we start sending them offshore to be processed.
Jay
Of course! And it all started with Tampa and the Pacific Solution which we talked about in the last episode.
Thinesh
Right, we sent people to be detained in Nauru and Manus Island.
But it gets worse. The government decides that all asylum seekers that arrived on or after the 19th of July 2013 will never resettle in Australia. And this is literally right after Priya and Nades arrived in Australia.
Scott Morrison
If you do not have a valid claim, you will not be resettled in Australia. You will never live in Australia. If you choose not to go home, then you will spend a very, very long time here. You have been told a lie by people smugglers. They have taken advantage of you; they have ripped you off.
Jay
So, what, they just stay in detention indefinitely?
Thinesh
Or until another country decides to resettle them. And we know things were bad in these offshore centres like Behrouz Boochani’s experience in episode 4. and these offshore centres costed us 957 million dollars for the 2021-2022 financial year. But even before the pacific solution, before Manus Island and Nauru, we were already keeping people offshore.
Josh Watkins
Refugees would first travel to countries of first asylum, primarily Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, and they would be encamped, and they would wait there until third countries, self-declared resettlement countries, so the United States or Australia, would select them for resettlement.
Thinesh
Unsurprisingly, our government doesn’t want to resettle everyone, they want to pick and choose who they take, based on things like language, education, and employment skills. And yes, we are still talking about asylum seeker visas, not skilled migrant visas.
Josh Watkins
So, at any given time from the late 1970s, across the 1980s and the 1990s and going on to this day, there were tens of thousands, thousands upon thousands of refugees encamped across Southeast Asia.
Thinesh
Jooi, didn’t you do a podcast story on one of these refugee stories?
Jay
Yes! One of my good friends was born in one of these refugee camps in Indonesia back in the early 90’s.
Thinesh
So definitely not a new policy. But it’s gotten tougher and stricter since then.
Jay
Yeah, and if an asylum seeker is somehow allowed to apply for protection here like Priya and Nades, then they have that whole visa application process which we discussed in the first episode. It just seems like at every step of the way, our government is putting up walls and barriers to not have to accept asylum seekers.
Ben Doherty
Australia's policies are more draconian and more punitive and more inhumane than any comparable liberal democracy.
Maeve Higgins
To be honest, when I think about Australian immigrant detention policies, they're a world leader.
Thinesh
This is journalist Maeve Higgins who we heard from in episode 4.
Maeve Higgins
And I feel like Australia making all of these early and very draconian moves, has given permission to the US and to the UK to dehumanize migrants even further and to say to their own populations, "Look, it's fine. Australia's been doing it for a real long time.
Jay
Let me guess, other countries followed suit?
Ben Doherty
I think one of the issues is that Australia is now seeking to export essentially these sorts of policies. We're seeing the UK with the Rwanda plan, which is Australia's offshore processing, not just quietly but overtly promoted as a policy to be enacted.
Josh Watkins
Tony Abbott famously attempted to sell it to European countries during the increased number, flight of primarily Syrians, but other refugees and asylum seekers from the Middle East and South Asia as well, into the European Union from 2014 to 2015.
The logic has been to keep people from the global south in the global south.
Jay
Okay, so not only do we have incredibly tough policies, we’re trying to get other countries to do the same?
Dumb question, but why do we have these tough policies, and why do other countries want to replicate them? Like, it feels like it’s more than just fear-mongering and trying to win votes. And I mean, it’s costing us so much money. There’s got to be a bigger reason why Australia has so many tactics to prevent asylum seekers from staying.
Thinesh
It’s not always easy to know our government’s intentions, but we can take a stab. For a lot of the academics and writers we spoke to, it’s this sense of “we choose who comes into our country”. But also…
Josh Watkins
It's a complete aidance of responsibility.
We can look at racial dynamics. We can look at the notion of nations, the social construction of nations, we can look at the rise of xenophobia, the persistence of xenophobia and anti-foreigner sentiment, some of that is connected to racial sentiment, as well, and racism.
Maeve Higgins
So, something I've noticed, studying migration, and reporting on migration is... There's a huge difference in how people are treated depending on their race.
Ben Doherty
So, I think the reasons that Australia went as far as they did when they did are around geographic issues, around being an island nation, around historical issues, around a history of the white Australia policy, fears of the yellow peril from the Cold War. All of these kind of old tropes still have extant currency in the Australian political debate.
Thinesh
We could discuss race, but when you hear news about the Russia Ukraine war like this:
News Reporting
Is really emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed. This is a relatively civilised, ah, relatively European city. These are prosperous middle-class people, these are obviously not refugees tyring to get away from the Middle East.
Jay
I don’t think we need to say any more.
Josh Watkins
What is abundantly clear to me in looking at the international refugee regime, on both as a whole, as well as looking at Australia's role in it, is that reform is necessary. That the consequences of not reforming the international refugee regime, is just simply not acceptable to me. Most certainly not acceptable to the tens of millions of refugees and asylum seekers living across the world in precarity.
Thinesh
But people being forced to move, is not going to magically disappear just because of all of our government’s tactics.
Ben Doherty
I think there is a growing understanding that the forces that compel people to move, to leave their homes, are always going to be stronger than any deterrent policies. You can put up any walls, you can put up any operations you can mount to deter people. The forces that are compelling people to move are incredibly powerful and those are the things that need addressing. Displacement by climate, displacement by war and persecution, all of those things.
Thinesh
The UNHCR reports that hazards, resulting from the increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, are already causing an average of over 20 million people, to leave their homes each year.
Maeve Higgins
We see that a lot of nations, states in the wealthier parts of the world, are on this steady course, where they're increasing their budgets for border security. They're trying to control it; they're trying to stop movement. They're introducing these new technologies.
It's a very dangerous cocktail. So, I think, taking a step back and understanding, "Actually what's the real threat?" I think about that all the time, living in the US, I'm, "Okay, we are pouring all of these billions of dollars into the border and surveillance industry. Meanwhile, what's the real threat? Maybe we could do with better... you name it. Education, the road to the airport is a disaster, so many people are killing themselves with guns." So there are real threats that we could be devoting all of these resources to, instead of migrants, which is just a person who needs to move.
Jay
Woah okay, so we don’t want another Nadesalingam family situation to happen again, but in reality, other asylum seekers are faring much worse. They get turned back to an unsafe country before they even reach Australia, or before they can make their asylum seeker claims properly, or they’re kept offshore, and we just never hear about them and never get a chance to even know they exist.
Thinesh
Like we could use all that money and effort to help them and give them a better life, but we don’t.
Ben Doherty
Forced migration, the mass movement of people across the globe is going to be one of the sorts of defining forces of the 21st century. This is an era we live in, an era of displacement. One in a hundred people in the world is forcibly displaced from their home. We are going to see millions, tens of millions of people forced out and forced to move by conflict, by climate, by all manner of persecution. And to pretend that this is just you know, something that Australia can deal with in isolation with its suite of policies is to ignore the reality of the situation.
And I think Australia so often asks the wrong questions here. We talk about, well, what does Australia need to do to stop this? What does Australia need to do to address this issue? The question we should be asking is, what are the policies Australia's able to enact that mean that more people who need protection can get it? And that's the question that keeps getting lost,
Jay
Um. So, It is Sunday, the 12th of June. We are walking to Tharnicaa’s birthday.
Thinesh
Yes.
Jay
Tharnicaa’s 5th birthday.
Thinesh
Her first birthday outside of detention - which is crazy to think about.
Jay
Yeah, yeah. The theme is pink. Can you please describe what we are wearing.
Thinesh
We are wearing pink ribbons on our foreheads/head as a bow. Jay is also wearing a pink ribbon around his neck, which I don’t quite understand aesthetically but you do you Jay.
Jay
It’s like a bowtie.
Thinesh
Yes, lots of mixing of ideas. and we are also wearing beautiful fairy wings. You look v cute and um as we are walking down the street, I saw a woman drive past and the woman quickly glanced our way being like … The fuck?
Jay
Hi
Thinesh
Hello
Jay
We had to! It’s a pink party!
Jay
Soon the family arrives. Tharnicaa is in a super cute pink dress and sweater. Biloela has never been so pink. We quickly sing Happy Birthday, and the birthday games begin.
Music - The Kiboomers
Elephant stomp around the room! Stop when I say……Freeze!
Thinesh
The community has organised every birthday game imaginable - pass the parcel, pin the tail on the donkey.
Jay
Except it’s pin the seahorse on the …seahorse.
Thinesh
Oh yeah - That’s right! And eating donuts on strings with no hands, a piñata, limbo.
Jay
Except the Kopika and Tharnicaa don’t know how to play limbo because 4 years in detention means they haven’t actually played before.
Thinesh
It’s like they were making up for all the birthdays that were missed.
Jay
For Bronwyn’s youngest son Harry, the dream of the park playdate with Kopika and Tharnicaa is coming true.
Jay
Are you guys having a good time?
Harry Dendle
Yeah!
Kopika
Yes!
Harry Dendle
Tell me if this is too high!
Kopika
Higher!
Thinesh
It has been a really long journey for the Home to Bilo team. After over four years of meetings and rallies and medical emergencies and last-minute injunctions, the team is understandably tired.
Simone Cameron
There are holidays that you're on where you sort of drop everything and say I you know; I I can't do this at the moment. And maybe, yeah, with hindsight, you sort of thing, oh, yeah, I, you know, I sort of checked out there a bit.
Angela Fredericks
I literally have just a couple of weeks ago coming from a psychiatrist appointment, where they, they have yes said you know, just the toll and the vicarious trauma and you know, the juggling a workload with a full-time campaign. Just that toll on myself.
Bronwyn Dendle
You know, and then I suppose it influences decisions about whether you take up jobs or, you know, get involved in other things, because you've got to factor in that, you know, you're working on this campaign that takes up, you know, a fair bit of time, as well.
Jay
And this is the campaign team who have actually had success! One that’s held it together and kept going for years, and this is the toll it’s taken on them.
Ben Doherty
But what about all of those families? What about all those people who don't have a country town rallying behind them, who don't have candlelight vigils being held for them, who don't have online petitions attracting tens of thousands of signatures, who don't have parliamentarians standing up in parliament speaking on their defence. All of those people who are quietly suffering at the hands of this system, we don't know about, and we don't know about them because we don't know about them. And it's deliberately kept that way.
It's a very arcane, very secretive system, and it's very hard to know exactly what's going on. So, in some ways, they're a real tip of the iceberg, the Nadesalingam family, in that we've got this system that allows this to happen.
Jay
And it’s quite sad because we shouldn’t need to fight for each and every asylum seeker the way this campaign team did. It shouldn’t take the sacrifice and burnout of multiple people to get protection for people like the Nadesalingam’s.
Thinesh
But there are crumbs of hope, Jay.
Jay
Little specks.
Thinesh
A dust mite. This one family’s story has rippled throughout the country and the world. For the first time, A lot of Australians are questioning our harsh policies and procedures.
Ben Doherty
We were told we need these harsh laws, we need these punitive measures to keep us safe, to protect Australia. And again, to that point before, is this what we're being protected from? Because I think that exposed for a lot of people exactly the way these very extreme powers can be misused in this way.
When you take it away from that very human story of a family who are locked away for four years, essentially, it becomes more difficult to capture people's attention, I think. But I think that's the next stage in the discussion, is well, how do we create a system that doesn't engineer another Nadesalingam family saga? That's the next challenge.
Thinesh
But throughout this series we’ve learnt that, at every step of the way, things are stacked against asylum seekers. Jay, you love a good summary, tell us what you’ve learnt throughout these 6 episodes.
Jay
Gosh, so much! So firstly, yeah, our visa application system for asylum seekers is designed to not let people like Priya and Nades succeed, from a 15-minute interview that can already send you back, to not having the resources or knowledge of what to put in your visa application.
And if you somehow end up in one of our detention centres, which are practically privatised operations, the private companies involved are incentivised to cut costs, which can mean not getting proper medical care like the Nadesalingam family experienced or lining up for hours to get a razor like Behrouz Boochani experienced.
Thinesh
And things like climate change are only going to make the displacement of people worse, so we’re probably going to see more people fleeing to Australia, and it’s going to be a polarising topic at elections.
Jay
…which probably includes stirring up this fear of boat arrivals and drumming on about border security.
Thinesh
and let’s not be fooled into thinking that one party is better than the other - although the Labor party brought the Nadesalingam’s home to Bilo, Labor has made its commitment to offshore processing very clear and you’re also forgetting about Sri Lanka though.
Jay
Of course! What a bloody history Sri Lanka has, and how horrific that our government with the US blankly painted the Tamil Tigers as terrorists. We also stood by as the US kind of derailed the peace talks. But then we make it difficult for Tamils who are fleeing this to seek asylum here.
Thinesh
And when we think about these international relationships that we have like the one with the US, it often seems so abstract, but the reality is there are real humans trapped in the middle of all of this.
Jay
Desperate, vulnerable humans like Priya, Nades, Kopika, and Tharnicaa. It’s their lives that are affected by all these decisions that feel like governments just wanting to be staying in power and keeping favour. It’s just a massive clusterfuck.
And I guess the question this can come back to is, is this the sort of country we want to be? Is keeping people locked in detention for over ten years, or forcing people to live in uncertainty for just as long - is that what we as Australians want to be known for? Do we want to be a world leader in harsh, brutal border policies?
Thinesh
Yeah, do we want the Nadesalingam family’s story to be this one-off exception, or should protection for people like them, be the norm?
Jay
The day after Tharnicaa’s birthday, Thinesh and I are packed and ready to leave Biloela for the second time in less than three weeks.
Thinesh
Fast forward a couple of months, and the family receive permanent protection.
Jay
Which is a big deal right?
Thinesh
Yeah, it means no more applying or reapplying for visas or bridging visas. They can live here permanently. And life is pretty normal. Nades is back working at the Meatworks, and Priya is learning to drive.
Thinesh
How are your driving lessons going?
Priya
Driving is okay. Nades is teaching me. We stopped for two months due to the school holidays. I need to start again. I hope I can get my drivers’ license quickly!
Thinesh:
Automatic or Manual?
Priya
Automatic! That’s enough for me!
Thinesh:
You will have to teach Tharnicaa and Kopika!
Priya
That’s Nades’s responsibility. He will teach them!
Jay
Cute! Ordinary, but in the best way.
Thinesh
Or as Angela Fredericks describes it…
Angela Fredericks
Yes. Nice and dull. standing around the backyard watching the girls play, or Nades and Priya showing us, you know, their plants them, mocking, mocking me and Alan, because we can't grow plants or so, you know, it's really fun just seeing this normality.
Thinesh
What’s life like in Bilo?
Priya
I am happy. Even though my time in detention has left me with some physical restrictions, when I go out of the house, I am happy. My friends say to me, ‘Hi Priya, how are you? Are you settled? Have the girls started school? How are they? How is your life going? Are you having issues?’ This makes me feel happy - we have friends and a community here. They care about how I am, and that makes me happy.
Thinesh
What do you end up doing with your friends?
Priya
If friends invite me to a party or a birthday, I will go. Our family went to Bronwyn’s for Christmas and a swim. If there are any programs or activities at the library, I will go. If there are any events at the park, I will take the kids and go. I usually don’t miss any community activities.
Jay
But some things are still taking a bit of adjusting.
Bronwyn Dendle
… and we were just laughing the other day because there'd been a something on at the school that had said, you know, bring a plate. And you know, and so Nades and Priya, literally bought a plate, like a plate. You know, and we were laughing about that, and we were like, Oh my gosh, yes. You know, and so then that's when Nades went oh, we're new to the whole school thing, too, you know, like, they've not had that slow build up, you know, over the last however many years that Kopika would have been in prep.
Thinesh
How are Kopika and Tharnicaa settling into school?
Nades
Kopika and Tharnicaa are going to a school they like. They don’t even want to leave school for a holiday because of what’s happened in the past. Tharnicaa is afraid that if we leave here, we may not come back home. So, this time around we didn’t even go on a holiday. We tell her “Don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere, we are staying in Biloela.”
Thinesh
What dreams do you have for your family?
Priya
I have a simple dream. I want to raise my kids to be good people. To help people in the community. To give them a good education and have them grow up with freedom. I want girls to have freedom. Where I grew up, girls didn’t really have freedom. I want to be one with the community and live a free life. I want to remain grateful. I want to hold this gratitude in my heart when I see this community, I want to be loving and soft. Otherwise, I don’t have any big dreams. I just want to live a simple life.
Jay
It’s been a long journey for this family to make it back to Biloela.
Thinesh
So, we wanted to know what they think of their whole experience.
Thinesh
What would you like to say to Australians?
Priya
There are two things I would like to say. The first is on behalf of asylum seekers, we come here on boats as a last resort. Many say we haven’t come through the right channels. But we know this is not wrong to do this. Those who have come seeking asylum should be given a life of protection and freedom.
They should be seen as humans. Don’t look at us as the ‘other’, but as one of you. Secondly, my life in Biloela is a victory for love. Love that’s been shown by the Australian people. I am thankful to be given permission to live here. It’s through the power of the people that I was able to return to Biloela, so I would like to thank all Australians.
Thinesh
When you think of Australia, how do you feel?
Priya
No matter what difficulties we have endured since coming here, we are now safe. Australia is a good country. A lucky country. It’s our bad luck that we struggled, but Australian people are kind-hearted. I feel lucky to live in Australia.
Thinesh
Do you think your experience will have a positive impact for other asylum seekers?
Nades
Definitely, we think there will be change. Australian people now know the hardships that asylum seekers endure, and they will come to know more.
For people who came like us, for people who are going to seek asylum just like us, they should not have to go through what we went through.
Thinesh
Do you think your experience is going to help other asylum seekers like you?
Priya
As I’ve spoken out about my experience, Australians have come to know the other side of a refugee’s life. I think in the future, refugees like me will have a good outcome. They will not have the difficulties that I had. They should have a good outcome. We have had nothing. But I 100% believe that in the future, good things will happen.
Thinesh
How do you feel? What other questions do you have and what could we have done better? Let us know over at @youhavebeentoldalie on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Because Twitter has a character limit for its handles, find us @beentoldalie on twitter.
Jay
If you want to see footage of the family touching down in Biloela, our cute pink outfits to Tharnicaa’s first birthday back home, or to learn more about Australia’s overseas public information campaigns, head to our website youhavebeentoldalie.com, where you can also find all of our references and the transcript for this episode.
Thinesh
We note that asylum seekers experience a lot of trauma, not only before arriving at our borders, but also living in detention. This has an impact on recollection and details.
Jay
Due to the nature of Priya and Nades’s journey across borders, there are some aspects of their story that we will only ever know from their perspective. We have reached out to relevant parties where possible, and where comments were provided, a summary has been included.
Thinesh
This episode is written by Jay Ooi and produced by Jay Ooi and Thinesh Thillainadarajah.
Jay
Audio editing is by myself Jay Ooi, and the sound is by Luke Minott
Thinesh
Tamil translations by Thinesh Thillainadarajah and Neeraja Sanmuhanathan
Jay
Priya’s English translation is voiced by is Emma Harvey and Nades’s English translation is voiced by Matthew Predny.
Thinesh
The Consulting Producer is Rebekah Holt
Jay
Special thanks to Priya, Nades, Kopika, Tharnicaa, the HomeToBilo team, and the interviewees in this episode, Simone Cameron, Bronwyn Dendle, Vashini Riswan, Angela Fredericks, Josh Watkins, Ben Doherty, and Maeve Higgins, as well as Wendy Wiseman from The Kiboomers for letting us use their music in this episode. And a shoutout to the interviewees we couldn’t fit into the series - Dhakshayini Sooriyakumaran, Marion Meisner, Marie Austin, Larraine Webster, Robert Connell, and Neeraja Sanmuhanathan.
Thinesh
Thanks to Miles Martignoni, Jess Bineth, Cassandra Steeth, and Scott Spark for script and story advice, and Macarthur Amey for helping with research and fact checking.
Jay
This series is possible thanks to the Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship, thank you Que Minh Luu, Benjamin Law, Scott Spark, Jess Bineth, Kali Reid, Clare Holland, and the rest of the team.
Thinesh
There have been many people we’ve spoken to who have helped in so many ways, and many who have asked to remain anonymous. We see you and we thank you for your support.
Jay
This podcast was written, edited, and produced on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. We acknowledge all elders past, present, and emerging.
Thinesh
We also pay our respects to the traditional custodians of Gangulu country, where Biloela is now situated. This land were never ceded, always was and always will be Aboriginal land.
Credits
Producer Jay Ooi and Thinesh Thillainadarajah
Consulting producer Rebekah Holt
Writer Jay Ooi
Audio editor Jay Ooi
Tamil translators Thinesh Thillainadarajah and Neeraja Sanmuhanathan
Priya’s English voice Emma Harvey
Nades’s English voice Matthew Predny
Interviewees Simone Cameron, Bronwyn Dendle, Vashini Riswan, Angela Fredericks, Josh Watkins, Ben Doherty, and Maeve Higgins
Featured music The Kiboomers - ‘Animal Freeze Dance’ and ‘Limbo Game’
Script & Story advice Miles Martignoni, Jess Bineth, Cassandra Steeth, and Scott Spark
Research & fact checking Macarthur Amey
This series is possible thanks to the Jesse Cox Audio Fellowship