The organiser of an online petition urging the Federal Government to release a Tamil family from detention and allow them to return home to Biloela has now launched a phone campaign aimed at local MP Ken O’Dowd.
Biloela resident Angela Fredericks has been urging people who signed her change.org petition to phone Member for Flynn Ken O’Dowd to encourage him to attend a vigil planned to be held in Biloela on Wednesday evening.
Ms Fredericks says the family, including two children born in Australia, have been “cruelly forced from their home”.
By 2:00pm on Wednesday, more than 58,300 people had signed her petition to release the couple from detention.
It is believed Nadesalingam and Priya came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013 following Sri Lanka’s civil war and settled in Biloela on a bridging visa.
This expired last Monday.
Border Force officers took the couple into custody a few days later.
Ms Fredericks said the vigil would be held in Biloela Lions Park.
“Can you call our local MP, Ken O’Dowd before 5:00pm today and ask him to attend so he can see our community’s true heart?” she wrote.
