Refugee advocates have gathered to protest the death of a 23-year-old Tamil asylum seeker who died after setting himself on fire in Melbourne’s south-east.

Friends of Mano Yogalingam told the ABC that he had arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka in 2013 and had been on a bridging visa for roughly 11 years.

A Victoria Police spokesperson said that emergency services were called to a skate park in Noble Park on Tuesday (27) night. A man with life-threatening injuries was taken to hospital, where he died on Wednesday (28), they said.

The Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson told the ABC that Yogalingham’s claim for refugee status was previously rejected under the controversial “fast-track” system introduced in 2014, an outcome he had been seeking to appeal.

In a brief statement, a Home Affairs spokesperson said that the Department’s condolences were with family members and other people affected “at this difficult time”. 

“For privacy reasons, the Department cannot comment on individual cases,” they said.

(ABC News)