About 40 activists from the Refugee Action Collective Victoria and other refugee rights groups protested outside the Melbourne offices of Thai Airways on September 14. Thai Airways were used in the July 25 deportation of a Tamil refugee back to Sri Lanka. He underwent a 16-hour interrogation on arrival, after which he told a press conference that he withdrew his past allegations of torture at the hands of the Sri Lankan regime.
The outsourcing of the asylum claims assessment to private companies has put about 280 refugees, mostly Tamils from Sri Lanka and Hazara from Afghanistan, in imminent danger of deportation to life-threatening situations.
Calling it “the airline of death,” protesters said Thai Airways would continue to be targeted until it renounced participation in deportations. Other airlines were warned they would face similar protests if they deported refugees. Protesters also condemned the resumption of offshore detention in Nauru.