The Podcast That Reveals How Australia Failed The Biloela Family

After four years of tedious due process and detainment, Nades, Priya, Kopika, and Tharnicaa were returned to their home in Biloela in August 2022. 

A six-episode, award-winning podcast series, You Have Been Told A Lie gives crucial context to their story, featuring interviews with the Nadesalingams, the Home To Bilo community campaign team, Behrouz Boochani, and many more. It’s hosted by Jay Ooi and Thinesh Thillainadarajah. 

“We had already started working on the story with the Nadesalingams,” Thillainadarajah says, “but during last year’s election, the family and the issue of asylum seekers had become a political football used by both major parties, and the thesis of our show became much more amplified.”

Indeed, the series paints a harrowing picture of bureaucratic mismanagement, politics, and a flawed immigration system.

Dashed Hopes Of A New Life

The first episode of You Have Been Told A Lie details Nades and Priya’s separate journeys from Christmas Island to Australia, and how they came to be married and settled in Biloela, Queensland. The couple speaks in Tamil throughout the podcast (an English translation is overlayed), which enables them to be more candid.

Priya and Nades had arrived first in Sydney, but work opportunities drew Nades to Biloela. He learned of Priya through a friend who suggested they should get married. Initially, Priya refused, despite her friends’ and family’s concerns that she didn’t have a partner. Eventually, after some gentle coaxing, she agreed.

In the podcast, the affection that Nades and Priya feel for one another is palpable. They didn’t meet until their wedding day, which is not uncommon in traditional Tamil arranged marriages. “It was fate that she came into my life,” Nades says. Soon enough, Kopika and Tharnicaa were born.

But that familial happiness was short lived. News of immigration officials coming to Biloela to deport other Tamil asylum seekers meant the Nadesalingams were living under constant fear. According to the podcast, despite arriving in Australia only 12 months apart – Nades arrived in April 2012 and Priya arrived in February 2013 – their visa application processes were completely different. Nades was eligible to apply for a permanent protection visa two months after he arrived, but in Priya’s case, her visa application was at the sole discretion of the immigration minister at the time, Alex Hawke. 

Priya and Nades say they had applied to renew their bridging visa. Their immigration case manager told them the application had been posted. Nevertheless, the police and immigration officers escorted them into detention. Priya and Nades describe the aggression and mocking that they endured at the time by Serco security guards and officers in detail.

Driven by the local community and the family’s legal team, the Home to Bilo campaign was instrumental in placing public pressure on the courts and politicians to offer them permanent protection. (Priya wrote a book about the ordeal.) “While immigrant exceptionalism needs to be challenged, this was an important part of the campaign that contributed to its eventual success,” says Thillainadarajah.

Australian And US Interest In Sri Lanka’s Civil War

While sharing Nades and Priya’s stories, the podcast also reveals how Australia and the US’s vested interests led to their arrival on Australian shores. “With Priya and Nades having captured Australia’s attention, we wanted to share the reason behind why Tamil people were coming to Australia by boat, and how Australia may be contributing to this problem,” says Thillainadarajah.

Trincomalee Harbour, a deep-sea port based in north-east Sri Lanka, is valuable real estate internationally. Ports in Sri Lanka were established by the British during WWII. For Australia, Sri Lanka is a key neighbour in the Indian Ocean, particularly as an access point to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The US wanted to use Sri Lanka as a strategic location in its focus on Asia. Even China’s major trading routes go past Sri Lanka. 

“The geopolitics that connect Australia, Sri Lanka, and the United States not only play a role in the wave of Tamil asylum seekers fleeing Sri Lanka, but also in how they are ‘managed’ in that process,” says Thillainadarajah. 

At the age of 16, Nades was “conscripted” into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a political organisation that acted as a counter to the oppressive Singhalese majority government. It was mandated that a member of each family had to join the movement, otherwise they would have to pay a tax. The Tigers ran north-east Sri Lanka as a de facto state, providing public services like the police, courts, and schools. 

In 2002, peace negotiations started between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, at which point a ceasefire was called. The US and Australia were involved in these negotiations, but peace meant there would be no access to the port, as it was occupied by the LTTE. Therefore, it was in the best interest of the US and Australia for the Sri Lankan government to defeat the LTTE. By June, the American government had been in talks to enter into an a defence agreement with Sri Lanka, providing military training and equipment.

The ceasefire also reduced the number of people fleeing Sri Lanka and those who left were returning home. But by 2008, the ceasefire had ended and fighting resumed, leading eventually to a large influx of asylum seekers to Australia. This was in 2009, before the Mullivaikkal massacre, in which an estimated 70,000 civilians died, bringing an end to the civil war. The connecting of these dots in how Australia’s interests intersect with its approach to immigration is probably one of the most interesting parts of the podcast series.

“Being able to interview experts who had deep knowledge and expertise on all the different touch points in Priya and Nades’ difficult journey for safety would hopefully equip listeners with the knowledge and tools so that we don’t keep repeating the same mistakes,” Thillainadarajah says.

Empowering Refugees Through Self-Advocacy 

Speaking to journalist and human rights defender Behrouz Boochani, who was held on Manus Island from 2013 to 2017, it’s clear the media plays a critical role in how refugees are seen by the public. 

“When you victimise refugees, this is part of the process of dehumanisation, and people see them as less. This is why politicians can keep them in indefinite detention,” says Boochani tells Junkee.

The media often rely on official sources and language, rather than refugees being able to advocate for themselves, positioning them as disempowered. Though the Home to Bilo campaign was effective in its approach, it is a harsh reflection of how Australia perceives those seeking asylum.

“We need to give them space to share their ideas and stories,” asserts Boochani.

But the Nadesalingams aren’t alone in their experiences of detention and there is more work to be done to shift Australia’s approach to protecting refugees. “Detention is a machine of violence and torture, but society only reacts to [the Nadesalingams] case,” says Boochani. “That’s white saviour culture rather than principles.” 

“I’ve been in Europe,” he adds, “and Australia is very active in introducing the detention policy to encourage the world to do the same. This is a reflection of the tragedy it has created.”  

---

The You Have Been Told A Lie podcast is available on Spotify.