Abduction At Sydney Airport

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 15

Abduction At Sydney Airport

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright)

SYDNEY, August 6.

A six-year-old Fijian girl was abducted at Sydney Airport tonight, minutes before she was to be deported from Australia. The girl. Nancy Prasad, was snatched from the arms of relatives by a group of young men who placed her in a car and drove away from the airport towards the city.

Nancy Prasad was to have boarded a plane for Fiji at 9 p.m.. New Zealand time. The a’rcraft took off a few minutes later without her. An Australian Broadcasting Commission reporter said that the girl had been driven to the airport by her brother-in-law, Mr R. Powditch. As the car arrived, a plac ard-carrying group appeared and snatched Nancy away from Mr Powditch. They put her into a waiting car outside the overseas terminal and drove off. LEGAL BATTLE

Earlier it was said that only a last-minute change of heart by the Australian Minister for Immigration, Mr Hubert Opperman, would stop the deportation tonight of Nancy Prasad. Her departure was to end a 21-month unsuccessful legal battle to allow her to remain in Australia. The fight to avert her de portation has been waged by her sister and brother-in-law. Mr and Mrs Powditch. Mr Powditch and his wife. Sandra, who is naturalised, have been caring for Nancy since her parents were sen! back to Fiji two years ago by the Australian immigra-

tion authorities. They had come from Fiji two years earlier. Mr and Mrs Powditch have been trying for nearly two vears to keep Nancy with them. ADOPTION REFUSED They applied to the court to adopt her in an attemp’ to prevent her deportation, but in June the Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision refusing the adoption application.

Nancy’s father brought his family to Australia in 1962 on a tourist visa. In 1963 when they were told to leave, Nancy was allowed to stay because she was in hospital with sinus trouble. “I am so upset by all this,” Mrs Powditch said today. "It will be very hard for her when she gets back home. Nancy can’t speak the Hindustani and her mother and the other children don’t speak English."