Tag Archives: oceania

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Biloela family granted permanent visas to stay in Australia

Asylum seekers affectionately known as the "Biloela family" have been granted permanent visas to stay in Australia.

The Nadesalingam family were at the centre of a lengthy immigration battle and spent four years in detention until their release a few months ago.

In June the new federal government allowed them to return to the small Queensland town of Biloela while their case was ongoing.

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This afternoon the Department of Home Affairs granted Priya, Nades, Kopika and Tharnicaa – previously know as the Murugappans – were given permanent visas.

Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles confirmed the decision had been finalised.

"This Government made a commitment before the election that, if elected, we would allow the family to return to Biloela and resolve the family's immigration status," he said in a statement.

"Today, the Government has delivered on that promise.

"This decision follows careful consideration of the Nadesalingam family's complex and specific circumstances.

"I extend my best wishes to the Nadesalingam family."

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https://twitter.com/HometoBilo/status/1555438219684065280

It was a moment years in the making for the Sri Lankan family, made possible by the campaigning of Biloela locals protesting their detainment and attempted deportation in 2018.

The Murugappan family had been living in detention since 2019, with much of that time spent on Christmas Island.

They were removed from their home in the Queensland town of Biloela and taken into detention in 2018 when their visa expired.

Priya and Nades' daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, were both born in Australia after the couple arrived in Australia by boat seeking asylum.

Priya and Nades are both Tamil, a group that has been persecuted in Sri Lanka.

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Dad jailed for 25 years for murder of partner in front of kids

Warning: This story contains the name and images of a deceased Indigenous person.

Noeline Dalzell's teenage children screamed and tried to shield her from their father before he reached between them and fatally stabbed her in the neck.

Every day the three children relive the trauma of watching James Leonard Fairhall murder their 49-year-old mother.

"There is an enormous hole left in their lives by the loss of their mother, three young lives forever changed by your despicable violence," Victorian Supreme Court Justice Jane Dixon said, jailing him on Friday for 25 years.

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The 47-year-old man was jealous and enraged when he pursued Dalzell through her Seaford home, in Melbourne's southeast, in February 2020.

She had become romantically interested in an old school friend after ending her 20-year on-off relationship with Fairhall, who had been violent towards her in the past.

Fairhall moved back into the family home a few months earlier when he had nowhere else to live.

Two days before the murder, Fairhall had told friends he wanted to kill the man Dalzell was speaking to.

Hours before the stabbing, he called her new love interest and apologised to him.

When his children arrived home from school on February 4, they found their parents arguing. Fairhall yelled at Dalzell and accused her of cheating on him.

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When he put down scissors he had been holding, their youngest child, then 13, hid them.

Fairhall then armed himself with a large kitchen knife.

The eldest daughter, aged 16, and son, 15, pushed their mother into the son's bedroom to protect her, but Fairhall followed them.

The two children put themselves between their parents, while the younger daughter watched on.

All three screamed at him to stop before Fairhall reached over and stabbed their mother in the neck.

Fairhall's son tackled him to the ground and he dropped the knife, allowing Dalzell to flee to a neighbour's home.

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Fairhall continued to pursue her, armed with a second knife, but Dalzell collapsed in the street and died from her neck wounds.

Justice Dixon said Fairhall's offending was a serious example of intimate partner murder.

"The tragic legacy of your crime is that your three children have effectively lost both parents as a result of your actions," she said.

Fairhall tried to blame his children in letters he wrote them from prison. They were never handed over, but were used by prosecutors to show his lack of remorse for the crime.

With time served he'll be eligible for parole in 16 years.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).