A Tamil family of four — including two Australian-born toddlers — has been moved to a remote island off the coast of Indonesia, despite a court order blocking deportation, its lawyer said on Saturday.
The family — fighting to remain in Australia because it fears persecution in Sri Lanka — was moved to Christmas Island detention facility overnight, lawyer Carina Ford said, speaking in Melbourne.
The island is a remote Australian territory around 350 km south of Java. The detention centre there had been closed for years.
The family’s case has become a new flashpoint over the Australian government’s hard-line immigration policies, which include turning away refugees arriving by boat and de facto offshore detention, both measures condemned by the UN.
