Qantas bans protesters who disrupted Tamil asylum seeker transfer; AFP investigating

A Melbourne university student who staged a protest on a Qantas flight over the transfer of an asylum seeker has been temporarily banned from the airline and asked to attend an interview with the Australian Federal Police.

On February 2 Jasmine Pilbrow, 21, made the protest at Melbourne Airport amid fears an asylum seeker on board would be deported once the plane arrived in Darwin.

The Tamil asylum seeker, known as Puvaneethan, 25, was being transferred from detention in Victoria to a Darwin detention centre.

Ms Pilbrow distributed flyers titled Save Puvaneethan from torture and urged passengers to refuse to sit down unless Puvaneethan was allowed to get off.

Two other passengers chose to get off the plane in protest at the asylum seeker's treatment.

Two weeks later, on February 16, all three parties received a letter from Qantas banning them "until further notice" from flying with the airline.

"Your actions are unacceptable and will not be tolerated by the Qantas Group or the Jetstar Group," the letter from Qantas head of security stated.

You are not permitted to:

• Travel on any flight operated by a member of the Qantas Group or the Jetstar Group;

• Travel on any codeshare flight operated by another airline (including Emirates) that has a Qantas or Jetstar flight number, such as "QF" or "JQ", on your ticket; or

• Purchase any flights on a Qantas issued ticket, either through Qantas directly or through a travel agent acting on our behalf, or ask or allow any person to do so for you.

Ms Pilbrow said Qantas had also asked the Australian Federal Police to investigate the protest.

"On Tuesday I've been asked to an interview with the AFP," she said.

She said she did not know whether police would press charges.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the temporary no-fly ban had been issued while the investigation was underway.

"This is standard procedure among most airlines. I can't provide further comment while the AFP investigation is happening," she said.

Asylum seeker was flown to Darwin a few days later

The protest in February resulted in Puvaneethan being removed from the flight, but a few days later he was transferred to Darwin without incident.

"He was told he was going to a medical appointment and instead taken to the airport and transferred to Darwin," Ms Pilbrow said.

Puvaneethan lived in Victoria for two years but was brought back into detention once his claim for asylum had been processed and was found not to be a refugee, Ms Pilbrow said.

"The [Federal] Government said although he had reasons to flee the country when he did, it's now safe to go back," she said.

Puvaneethan was not sure if there were plans to deport him back to Sri Lanka, she said.

Ms Pilbrow said the Refugee Action Collective, who had organised her protest, was annoyed the two other passengers had been banned from flying.

"I was expecting this kind of thing to happen and I intentionally went on the plane to stop it, however the other two passengers didn't cause any delays to the flight, they hopped off immediately," she said.

"We think it's quite unfair that they've been banned and that there is an investigation into them as well."

The Immigration Department declined to comment.