Australia posts ‘death threat’ billboards in Jaffna to deter Tamil refugees

by Ephraim
Oct 30, 2023

Photo courtesy of @Panangkottaiji

The Australian government has come under fire for its controversial asylum policy once more, after a poster was spotted in Jaffna this month warning of death if Tamil refugees sought to flee the island for Australia.

Images posted on social media show a billboard warning against fleeing to Australia, stating “Don't be in a hurry for your funeral”.

“If you are caught, you will perish,” the poster adds, with amangala thoranam leaves in the backdrop. The leaves are traditionally displayed at Tamil funeral homes.

This is not the first time that the Australian government has been criticised for its controversial campaign to deter asylum seekers.

In 2019, the Australian government was found to have created fake horoscopes, as part of an advertising campaign to discourage those fleeing Sri Lanka from coming to the country.

In 2021, it launched a website – www.zerochance.lk – which includes a Pacman-style video game where the player attempts to reach Australia by boat and is “caught by border patrol”, has their boat hit by a storm, or a number of other tragic endings. The website, part of a campaign called “Operation Sovereign Borders,” was the government’s latest attempt to deter Sri Lankans from attempting to seek asylum in Australia. All of the games were designed in a way that reaching “Australia” was impossible - in the Wheel of Fortune design, the user would spin the wheel to test the possibility of going to Australia, but every attempt would only land the user in outcomes such as “got caught to smugglers,” or border patrol, or “barred from Australia for life.”

The initiative also saw the launch of a film competition, calling for “budding filmmakers from around Sri Lanka” to submit a short movie. The competition however stipulates that “the Short Film MUST be based on the theme 'Illegal Migration to Australia' showcasing the futility of making such a journey”. It goes on to suggest a few points to include such as “getting caught by people smugglers, risking your life in the rough seas, the effect on the lives of families / loved ones, issues faced after being sent back to Sri Lanka”. The winners of the competition were awarded a DSLR camera, a drone, and a GoPro. 

The Australian government also has posted similar billboards in Pakistan. The Australian government also released a comic book in 2014, that depicted the journey of an asylum seeker from Afghanistan’s failed attempt at asylum and his prison sentence in a detention center. 

The latest campaign comes as asylum seekers, mainly Tamils, continue to flee the island.

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