Hopes dashed for intervention to save Tamil family
A Tamil family’s hopes for a ministerial intervention to stay in Australia have been dashed as Scott Morrison warns it would be ‘the worst possible thing to do’. They have one hope left.
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ALLOWING the Tamil family to stay in Biloela would be “the worst possible thing to do”, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, ending any chances of a ministerial intervention.
Mr Morrison said it would send the wrong message as Sri Lankan asylum seekers seek to breach Australia’s borders.
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“There’s 10,000 people in Indonesia right now who would get on a boat tomorrow if they thought this Government was changing its position,” he said.
“The worst possible thing you can do is to send a message which said, ‘You know what — if you come illegally to Australia and the courts say you don’t have a claim and the Government say you don’t have a claim, then the Government just might make an exception because there’s been a public reaction’.”
A Federal Court hearing on Wednesday for the family, Nadesalingam and Priya and their two daughters, will be their last-ditch attempt to stay in Australia.
It follows Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton revealing a fourth asylum seeker boat in as many months had been turned back from Australia’s maritime borders.
Mr Morrison said making exceptions to the rule could lead to asylum seeker boats restarting and more deaths at sea.
“I know what happens when people think it’s OK to make an exception here or there. I remember what happened. I remember the deaths,” Mr Morrison said.
“I will never allow that to happen again when it’s within my power.”
He said they were difficult decisions that were not taken lightly.
Mr Dutton revealed the news about the latest boat turn back this morning, as pressure grows on the government over the Tamil family, despite the vessel having been intercepted on August 18.
Mr Morrison backed in his Minister, saying the information released was “simply a fact”.
“We have regularly released this information after these incidents have occurred,” he said.
The Prime Minister urged the Tamil family to return to Sri Lanka and make a formal request to come to Australia “like everyone else”.
Originally published as Hopes dashed for intervention to save Tamil family