Family in limbo

By Sarah Schwager
THE Noble Park community has rallied around an intellectually disabled boy whose family could be deported to their native Sri Lanka.
Yasitha De Silva, 13, attends the Noble Park Special Development School but will be put back in the public school system if sent to Sri Lanka where there are no such schools.
The Noble Park family of Yasitha, brother Harsha, 9, and mother Mali Abeysekara, has been left in limbo until immigration officials make a decision.
They were expected to leave the country on Sunday after having lived in Australia for four years.
Ms Abeysekara’s visa ran out on Tuesday but was extended a few days earlier after a last-minute reprieve from the Immigration Department.
Ms Abeysekara met with Immigration Department officials on Tuesday to begin talks on how long the visa would be extended.
But she said an extended visa was not what the family was after.
“I don’t want to extend the visa, we want to get permanent residence,” she said.
Ms Abeysekara said she would be happy to go if officials let Yasitha stay.
“Back in Sri Lanka they had him on medication, he was so hyped up. Now he is so calm. I don’t want to think what would happen if he was to go back there,” she said.
Noble Park Special Development School principal Jackie Lowther said Yasitha had been at the school for the past four years and had made good progress.
“Being at the school has enabled him to move forward and he needs that sort of stable school environment,” Ms Lowther said.
She said the school community supported Yasitha and his family and would be very pleased if he could stay at the school.
“We’ve done as much as we can to support him staying,” Ms Lowther said.
“It would be a great shame to see him moved from a special development school.”
Ms Abeysekara and the boys first came to Australia in 2002 to be with her husband, who worked for the United Nations Peacekeeping force and sponsored them over.
But after travelling to Istanbul for work he was not allowed back in Australia and was forced back to Sri Lanka.
Ms Abeysekara has not seen him or her other son Channa, 15, in four years as he had not been granted permission to come to Australia.
In that time the family has lived off charity from the community and from the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre as they were not eligible for any Medicare or Centrelink assistance.
Harsha attends Noble Park Primary School and can only read and write in English.
Ms Abeysekara said it was difficult for the family to live in Sri Lanka because of the political situation and because her husband is a police officer.
“I don’t know why the government can’t understand these situations,” Ms Abeysekara said.
The family will now anxiously wait for a decision from the Immigration Department.