‘A happy day’: Tamil family’s hopes for home renewed after Federal Court win
A Federal Court ruling has rekindled hope among supporters of a Queensland Tamil family that they might be allowed to stay in Australia.
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THE FEDERAL Court’s decision that a young Tamil girl was denied procedural fairness in making a visa application has reignited pleas to the government to grant her family citizenship.
“Pure relief” flooded Priya Murugappan following her family’s Federal Court small – yet important – win in the Federal Court on Friday, with the decision allowing her family, including husband Nades and their Australian-born daughters Kopika and Tharunicaa to continue their fight to return to their former residence in Biloela in central Queensland.
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“Talking to Priya (Friday) morning, she just summed it up as being a happy day,” Murugappan family-friend and social worker Angela Fredericks told The Courier Mail.
“She just highlighted just how much all the support from the Biloela community and from the broader Australian community does keep them going.”
“She said her life started in Biloela and every step along this way she’s told us that we all will be together.”
“Her hopes have never wavered.”
The family have spent more than a year in detention on Christmas Island after an order halted their deportation to Sri Lanka in 2018.
On Friday, Federal Court Justice Mark Moshinsky ruled Immigration Minister David Coleman had lifted the bar to consider a visa application for Tharunicaa in May last year.
Mr Coleman had ordered a full departmental briefing on handling the family’s case, including the option that he exercise a power to allow them to apply for protection visas.
That prompted an assessment from Justice Moshinsky that Tharunicaa was “not afforded procedural fairness”.
Despite the ruling, the family will remain in detention on Christmas Island as legal proceedings surrounding the citizenship continue.
Mrs Fredericks, who leads the support group ‘Back to Bilo’, said the decision had rekindled hope for the Murugappan family and their supporters.
“Just the fact that we’ve had a court say that procedures haven’t been fair during this case … it does give us that sense of satisfaction that we’re finally being heard.
“ (Priya) says they can manage being isolated and cut off and trapped inside, as long as they know that they are loved.”
A petition calling for the Tamil family’s release has gathered almost 300,000 signatures after a massive influx of support following Friday’s verdict, prompting the Refugee Action Collective to renew the cries for the government to release the family.
“We would call on the coalition government to bring them home to Biloela,” Refugee Action Collective spokesman Chris Breen said.
“The children have spent most of their lives in detention … it’s beyond time that this family be released.”
Ms Fredericks urged the Government to accept “the simple solution”.
“We’ve got those incredibly powerful men in those positions that do have a great responsibility and they can actually protect this family in an instant, that’s all we’re asking,” she said.
“We’re just asking them to protect them and keep them safe.”
Lawyers for both Tharunicaa and the Immigration Minister have seven days to file their proposed orders regarding this morning’s verdict, which the judge will consider within 14 days.
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