Refugee advocates have gathered to protest the death of a 23-year-old Tamil asylum seeker, Mano Yogalingam, who died after setting himself on fire in Melbourne’s south-east.
Friends of Yogalingam told the ABC that he arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka in 2013 and had been living on a bridging visa for about 11 years.
Victoria Police reported that emergency services were called to a skate park in Noble Park on Tuesday night. A man with life-threatening injuries was taken to the hospital, where he died the following day.
The Tamil Refugee Council believes that Yogalingam’s long time on a bridging visa contributed to his tragic death. A council spokesperson told the ABC that Yogalingam’s claim for refugee status was previously rejected under the “fast-track” system introduced in 2014, which he had been trying to appeal.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has been approached for comment, and his department has been asked about the status of Yogalingam’s visa application. In a brief statement, a Home Affairs spokesperson extended their condolences to Yogalingam’s family and others affected but said they could not comment on individual cases due to privacy reasons.
The Tamil community, a minority group in Sri Lanka that is largely Hindu or Christian, is in mourning. Australian authorities have recently assessed that Tamils in Sri Lanka face a low risk of official or societal discrimination and a low risk of torture, which contrasts with the views of some international organizations and the United States.
The community is in shock over the sudden death of the young father. Friend Rathy Barthlote described Yogalingam as a “strong person, very energetic, very lovely,” and said his death has shocked everyone.
Protest
On Wednesday, friends of Yogalingam gathered outside the Home Affairs department’s Docklands office to protest his death. Many of those present had also spent years on bridging visas, like Yogalingam.
Barthlote called on the federal government to change its policies to provide certainty for people who have lived in Australia for years on bridging visas. “Please, stop this limbo for all of our lives. We don’t want to lose anyone else,” Barthlote said. “Give us permanent residency because we have been living this life for more than a decade. We are contributing to this community as much as we can. We are the hard-working people, the carers, the aged-care workers, and business owners. We are doing our best for the government.”
