Nicole Hilder, Melbourne
A popular 15-year-old year student at Thornbury Darebin Secondary College, Nak Assavatheptavee, was forcibly deported by immigration officials to Thailand on February 25.
Assavatheptavee has lived in Australia for the past eight years. He told the February 24 Melbourne Age: "I am unable to read or write [Thai], ultimately leaving me illiterate" in Thailand.
Immigration minister Amanda Vanstone refused Assavatheptavee and his father, Charoon, their applications for Australian citizenship on humanitarian grounds. As a result, the family has been ripped apart. Nak's 22-year-old sister, Nat, is a permanent resident. She was granted permanency when she had a child with an Australian citizen. This allowed her other brother, Nik, now a university student, to apply for a close relation visa once he turned 18. Because he is under 18, Nak is considered a dependent and is therefore listed on the bridging visa his father was on until its recent cancellation.
As the only permanent resident in the family, Nat is the only one who can legally work and has been supporting the whole family by working as a waitress seven days a week.
Nak and Charoon looked after Nat's daughter — four-year-old Katie. Nat will continue to financially support her family while they are in Thailand. As she works early and late shifts she has no way of looking after Katie without her family's support, so Nat and Katie will be separated so her daughter can be looked after by Nak and Charoon in Thailand. The Age reported that Nat was making this sacrifice because she also needed to save the money for a visa for her father and Nak, so he could resume his studies.
Nak and his father can apply for immigration visas in Thailand. However, even if they're approved, they have to wait for three years before they can return to Australia where they'll also be liable for the bill for their deportation.
Supporters of the Assavatheptavee family plan to raise $35,000 for a parent visa (contributing) that will allow Nat and his father to return to Australia.
On February 25, 100 staff and students from Thornbury Darebin Secondary College rallied against the deportation outside the immigration department offices.
Kylie Moon, co-convenor of the Socialist Alliance's Melbourne north-east branch, said: "We are all in shock that a teenager has been ripped away from his family, friends and community. Yet this is the brutal logical conclusion of Australia's racist immigration policy. While the media attention has been focused on a popular teenager 'just like one of us' being plucked out and sent to a Third World country, the other equally hideous side to the story is the massive burden which has fallen on his sister, Nat Assavatheptavee. This young women has lost her daughter for at least the next three years and is forced to work seven days a week in an industry with terrible working conditions in order to support her family."
Supporters of the Assavatheptavees plan to raise the money necessary to bring Nak, Charoon and Katie back to Australia. To help, phone Alex Bhathal on (03) 9480 1740.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 9, 2005.
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