A family, who have been living in Bingara for the past 5 years, is fighting to stay in Australia after having their Protection Visa application denied by the Appeals Review Tribunal.
Petrus Atep and his family fled Papua New Guinea after receiving deaths threats from a rival tribe following an incident where a hire car belonging to Mr Atep’s hire car company was involved in an accident where a tribesman from the rival tribe was killed.
Gwydir Shire Mayor Tiffany Galvin says the family fled to Australia on visitor visa in 2017 and arrived in Bingara in 2020 and subsequently applied for a protection visa which was denied on the basis of lack of documentary evidence of the threat to them.
Ms Galvin says the family believe they will be killed if they returned to Papua New Guinea but hope officials can step in before the deadline date of December 13th when the family will be deported.
New England Barnaby Joyce confirmed he has written to Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Tony Burke seeking ministerial intervention to enable Mr Atep and his family to stay in Australia.
