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‘It was life or death’: the plane-hijacking refugees Australia embraced
Luke Henriques-Gomes’s grandfather was one of 44 refugees to arrive in 1975 on the only RAAF plane ever hijacked.
The official response still staggers him
- Luke Henriques-Gomes
- The Guardian
Let’s conduct a quick thought experiment: what would happen if one day, in the middle of a civil war on a small island unknown to most, a group of refugees forced themselves on…
To which far-flung detention centre would they be sent?
How long would their jail sentences be?
Or would they simply be sent back home – possibly to die?
Surely the group would not have been asked a…