Tamil asylum seeker facing deportation attempts suicide in Melbourne !!

A Tamil asylum seeker scheduled who faced deportation to Sri Lanka today (Wednesday) has attempted suicide in the early hours of this morning.

It is understood that ambulances were called to the Maribynong Detention Centre in Melbourne and that the man has been transported to the Royal Melbourne Hospital. The 42 year old Tamil man, who has family still in Sri Lanka, was scheduled to be removed from Australia this afternoon at 3pm after last minute legal action in the Federal Magistrates Court in Sydney to obtain an injunction to stop his removal from Australia yesterday failed yesterday afternoon. The man has spent two and half years in detention years in detention in Scherger detention centre and the last few months living in the community in Melbourne on a bridging visa. He was re-detained last Thursday (25 October) when his bridging visa expired and told he was to be deported to Sri Lanka. “We are extremely concerned about the fate of this asylum seeker,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “Sri Lanka remains a dangerous place for anyone deemed to be an opponent of the Rajapaksa regime. The use of torture is systemic. “In recent months the British High Court has intervened to stop the deportation of Tamil asylum seekers from Britain to Sri Lanka because of the threat of torture they faced. “The attempted suicide overnight is a reminder of the life and death situation that Tamil asylum seekers face. We are calling on the Minister to urgently intervene to stop the deportation. Tamil asylum seekers being returned to Sri Lanka are being deported to danger.” A Tamil asylum seeker who was about to be deported from Melbourne to Sri Lanka has won a last-minute reprieve from the Federal Court. The 42-year-old man was supposed to leave this afternoon, after the court refused to grant him refugee status yesterday. But an urgent appeal hearing in Sydney has resulted in a stay of his deportation. The man was recently released into the community in Melbourne, after spending two-and-a-half years in detention. But he was called to a meeting with immigration officials at the Maribyrnong detention centre last week and told he was being deported. About 20 protesters scuffled with police at the gates to the detention centre, where they staged a sit-in. The Refugee Action Collective says the man is terrified of returning to Sri Lanka because two of his brothers disappeared during the country’s civil war. It says the man tried to harm himself overnight. The Immigration Department has confirmed there was a case of self-harm, but it says that does not alter the outcome of asylum seeker claims.

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