TWO Mill Park boys forcibly moved to a refugee detention centre in Sydney are escorted daily to school by two security guards, their stepfather says.
Ganesh said his life had been in turmoil since his pregnant, Sri Lankan-born wife Ranjini Perinparasa (pictured) and her sons Pirai, 8, and Kathir, 6, were taken into indefinite custody last month. They were told by ASIO she had received an adverse security assessment.
“She’s OK but she has been very upset at times and very stressed. She has had many letters and cards and emails and she knows there are people outside supporting her,” Ganesh said.
“The kids have started going to a school outside the detention centre,
15 minutes’ drive away. She can go with them in a security car, but she and the children are accompanied by the driver and two policemen.”
Ranjini could leave the car and walk into the school, he said, but only when flanked by the two guards.
He said the children had made new friends but “they feel some kind of sad feeling. They don’t tell their friends (where they live), because they don’t want them to know. They can’t play with them after school”.
Ganesh is dividing his time between Sydney, where he stays with friends and visits Ranjini and the boys daily, and Melbourne where he works as an IT contractor.
The detention is the subject of a High Court challenge to test whether ASIO is obliged to tell refugees why they are considered security threats.
