Bella, Priya, Kopika (front), Simone, Tharnicaa, Nades

Lockdowns and COVID-19 have not slowed Simone Cameron down one iota. She’s moved countries with her family, planning the next interstate move and taking it to the government in the HomeToBilo campaign, amongst other things.

In COVID-19 times, where are you living?

My children and I are currently staying on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with my parents. We came back to Australia from Malaysia in June. We were living in Malaysia for 3 years, but came home earlier to escape the lockdowns there. My partner went back to Malaysia to finish his contract, and pack up our apartment. Hopefully, his flight will go ahead and he’ll be back in Australia by November. We plan to move to Melbourne at the end of the year.

What motivated you to study law?

I came to law after my experiences teaching English to refugees and people seeking asylum. I remember being profoundly affected by people’s stories, and the sorts of horrors they had fled, only to face more uncertainty in Australia. I felt that I wanted a change from teaching and that I’d like to work in the refugee sector. I knew I would need to do some further study, but I wasn’t sure whether I should study social work or law. I spent some time volunteering and doing some paid work as a refugee caseworker and eventually settled on law. I did a Graduate Certificate in Migration Law and Practice at Victoria University in 2017 to test my appetite for law. I loved it, and it helped me to feel more confident about studying law. I enrolled in the LLB in 2018. I chose UNE because I’d completed a Master of Applied Linguistics at UNE in 2015, and had really enjoyed the experience!   

I chose UNE because I’d completed a Master of Applied Linguistics at UNE in 2015, and had really enjoyed the experience!

What motivated you to choose to do an Honours degree?  

Although I’d done quite a bit of study before, I’d never undertaken any research, so I thought Honours would be a suitably daunting challenge! I knew I would pursue a topic related to refugee law, but it took me a while to settle on my topic.   

I volunteered with the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Melbourne on a project which aims to assist refugees and asylum seekers who were detained on Manus Island and Nauru and who were transferred to Australia under the now-repealed Medevac legislation. Those people have been kept in detention in Australia (either in hotels and detention centres), for about 18 months, and were detained offshore for up to 6 years before being transferred to Australia for medical treatment. I have been assisting with writing submissions to the Minister to request their release into the community.

After I enrolled in Honours, a friend told me about some interesting research that is being done at the intersection of law and linguistics. I thought this sounded right up my alley, and I decided on a topic which investigates the government’s justification for the repeal of the Medevac legislation. This project commences with a doctrinal analysis of negligence cases that were brought in the Federal Court on behalf of people detained offshore, prior to the implementation of the Medevac legislation, which forced the Immigration Minister to bring them to Australia for the treatment they needed. It then moves into linguistic analysis of the parliamentary debates in both the House of Reps and the Senate, to reveal the way that politicians justified the repeal of the Medevac legislation. I hope that my project, which is relatively novel in that it combines linguistic analysis within legal research, will demonstrate how language, as a site of power, can be used to block law reform. 

Why and how did you get involved in the HomeToBilo campaign?   

Before I left Biloela, I set up some English classes for people seeking asylum who were on bridging visas, and working at the abattoir in Biloela. In 2013, I taught Nades (the father) briefly before I left.  After the family were taken from Biloela in 2018, Angela and Bronwyn started the petition (https://www.change.org/p/scott-morrison-bring-priya-back-to-biloela), a friend sent me the petition and asked if I remembered Nades. I wrote an article or two about the family and got in touch with Angela to discuss what could be done next. I was living in Melbourne, and the family were in detention in Melbourne, so I visited them regularly. I linked up with Angela and Bronwyn and others from Biloela, and we started working together to try and get a positive response from the government. None of us ever thought we would still be doing this 3.5 years later, but here we are!   

Nades, Kopika, Priya, Tharnicaa

What’s your role in the campaign?    

There is a lot of overlap in the core group member’s roles, but there are a few things I tend to focus on. First, I correspond with the family’s lawyer to discuss various legal issues, and how best to proceed with those issues. Second, the management of the @hometoBilo Twitter account and assisting with the Bring Priya, Nades and their girls home to Biloela Facebook page. When we organise vigils around Australia, I reach out to organisers in each locality and work with them to plan and coordinate the events.  

Where is it up to at the moment?     

There is a Federal Circuit Court hearing on Thursday 16 September which relates to the Minister’s decision to ‘bring down the bar’ – this decision of the Minister will prevent Nades, Priya and Kopika from applying for further bridging visas when their current visas expire on the 22nd September. That will put them at risk of being put back into detention. Under s 46A of the Migration Act, the Minister must table before the Parliament the reasons for ‘bringing down the bar’ within a set timeframe. The family’s lawyer will be arguing that the Minister did not afford procedural fairness in the making of this decision, and also failed to table the reasons before Parliament.

Are there any other avenues to pursue in the HomeToBilo campaign for the family? 

There is also another legal challenge underway, which may be heard before the end of the year. While the family were detained in Melbourne, the government took the Australian birth certificates of Kopika and Tharnicaa, and registered their births in Sri Lanka, in order to facilitate their removal from Australia.  After this, the family’s legal team realised that the registration of their births in Sri Lanka was not necessarily lawful under Sri Lankan citizenship law. This meant that the girls might then be considered stateless, and eligible for Australian citizenship, so applications for Australian citizenship were lodged. The applications were denied by the government, and the matter will now go before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). 

How do most Australians perceive Sri Lanka?

One of the main difficulties we’ve had during the campaign is to impress upon people the dangers faced by Tamil people in Sri Lanka. Many Australians see Sri Lanka as a beautiful place where they can holiday on gorgeous beaches but don’t understand the ongoing persecution that Tamil people face there. The International Truth and Justice Project have just released a report which investigates the torture and trauma that the Sri Lankan government subject Tamil people to. See https://itjpsl.com/reports/torture-2020-21 

What can we do in support?

We are fundraising at the moment, to raise money for the family’s legal bills and for the public advocacy of their plight. The current fundraiser is located at bit.ly/HometoBilo …… and we appreciate any help that people can give. 

What does a usual day look like for you? (and, how do fit so much into each day?)  

A usual day for me is that I get the kids to school and daycare, then have a quick walk/run. Then I make a list of what I need to do that day. I make daily and weekly lists for myself – it’s the only way I have a chance of keeping up with things! After the kids are in bed at night I try to get a bit more work done. My involvement with the campaign has certainly honed my time management skills – the peaks of the campaign have often coincided with my assessment due dates, which has taught me much about juggling! 

Simone, you are an amazing role model. Congratulations on your achievements so far. We wish you all the best in your studies and campaigns. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us at UNE Law School.

2019 Vigil: Let Them Stay