A passenger who, in protest of what was happening, disembarked from a flight set to deport a Tamil asylum seeker from Australia, has been banned from the airline.
A 25 year old Tamil asylum seeker, known as Puvaneethan, was being flown from Melbourne to Darwin to be deported to Sri Lanka after the Refugee Review Tribunal rejected his asylum case.
Paul Leary, who works for a social justice organisation, said he and his colleague had no links to asylum seeker groups, and left the flight after finding out about the situation from asylum seeker advocates a handing out information about the man on the flight.
Mr Leary, added that he and his colleague eventually decided to leave the flight because they were not comfortable with the man’s treatment.
Mr Leary and his colleague were consequently banned from flying with the air service provider Qantas, who told them that they were subject to a no- fly ban and a security review, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
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