Tamil family faces indefinite future as their lawyers head to court

The PM has confirmed he won’t intervene for the Tamil family’s fight to stay in Australia, as a lawyer described it as “a train wreck in slow motion”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would not step in to save a Tamil family from deportation because he believes it would expose Australia to a new wave of boat people.

The man with a trophy in his office celebrating how he stopped the boats said granting an exception for a family whose asylum claims had been denied would kick-start the people smuggling trade.

The prime minister said the government could not change its position on the basis of “a public reaction” to the family’s plight.

“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 told reporters on Monday.

“I remember those terrible images and I will not ever allow that to happen again if it’s within my power and where it’s within my power.”

He said people smugglers remain active in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, and would act on any sign the government was weakening its position.

“I know what happens when you send those messages back into those communities, whether it’s in Sri Lanka or the more than 10,000 people sitting in Indonesia right now who would get on a boat tomorrow if they thought this government was changing its position,” he said.

On Monday, it emerged the Tamil family at the centre of a national immigration row could potentially still be deported due to the father’s travel history, as an immigration lawyer described their fight as “watching a train wreck in slow motion”.

Thousands of people rallied over the weekend to demand Priya, her husband Nadesalingam and their Australian-born children Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, stay in Australia.

They are being held on Christmas Island after being granted an 11th-hour court injunction against their deportation.

Speaking to Sunrise this morning, former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce called on Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to bring the family home.

“The couple met here and the children were born here and the community accepts them doing jobs that other people don’t want to do,” Mr Joyce said.

“They are living in a regional town. They are not blocking up your traffic in Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. They haven’t moved to one of the suburbs and not made an effort to become a part of the community. They are part of the community and these are other issues which we should take into consideration. I hate going against Peter Dutton but I think this is one of those special circumstances.”

"They're Australians"

Coalition MP @Barnaby_Joyce says the government should allow the Tamil family to stay in Biloela. pic.twitter.com/uF9xjaN1Sf

— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) September 1, 2019

Outspoken radio host Alan Jones also weighed in on the Tamil family this morning, calling the situation “beyond disgraceful”.

“I find the government’s behaviour on this, and that of Peter Dutton, beyond disgraceful. Is this the same Peter Dutton, and Immigration Minister David Coleman, who personally intervened last year to stop two au pairs who were to be deported,” Mr Jones told his 2GB listeners.

“The former deputy secretary of the immigration department is on the record as saying, in the last 72 hours, it is quite clear that if you look at the ministerial guidelines this case meets those guidelines more clearly than the two au pair cases, in which Minister Dutton acted within hours.

“Ministerial intervention powers are designed to cater to where a person’s not met the legal requirement for a visa but because of humanitarian or national interest grounds the government intervenes.”

Jones said he had written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Priya and Nades and their two Australian-born children. Picture: Ellen Smith/AAP

Government lawyer Christopher Tran described the family’s bid to stay in Australia as genuine refugees as “manifestly hopeless”.

Last Friday, Federal Court Judge Mordy Bomberg extended an interim injunction until Wednesday after lawyers argued Tharunicaa hadn’t been properly assessed for a protection visa. An action in the Federal Circuit Court on Monday afternoon was shifted to combine with Wednesday’s Federal Court hearing, which will examine the youngest child’s case for Australia’s protection.

The family had been held at a Darwin military base after a temporary injunction thwarted their deportation from Melbourne to Sri Lanka last week.

Immigration lawyer Simon Jeans, who worked with the past 10 immigration ministers, told the ABC he had been closely watching the case.

“Observing this case over the past 18 months has been like watching a train wreck in slow motion,” Mr Jeans told the publication.

Mr Jeans said it was clear the family had come to Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013, but the dad’s information about being forced to join the militant group the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in 2001 was contradicted by his travel.

The family has claimed if they were forced to go back to Sri Lanka they would face persecution for Nades’ links to the Tamil Tigers.

But from 2004 to 2010, Nades travelled freely between Kuwait and Qatar from Sri Lanka.

The civil war ended in 2009, leading Australia to find his alleged links to the Tamil Tigers would not be “of concern to the Sri Lankan authorities”.

“Anyone who was associated with the LTTE or was suspected of being with the LTTE would not have been coming and going into Sri Lanka,” Mr Jeans told the ABC.

“They would have been picked up by security forces.”

Activism for the family and their story being broadcast around the country could also be hurting them.

Last week, footage of the two girls screaming for their mother as she was pulled away by Border Force workers went viral.

Kopika and Tharunicaa.

If the minister granted a visa to the family it just encouraged more people to make media campaigns, and it might be unfair for other people who may not be able to make as much noise in the community,” Mr Jeans said.

“This is the most significant mistake and this is not a mistake of the family,” he said.

Despite the Australian authorities saying the family could return to Sri Lanka without fear of persecution, the parents are facing imprisonment if the family is sent back.

Leaving the country by boat is a crime in Sri Lanka, which means Kopika and Tharunicaa’s parents would be taken into custody immediately after landing there.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in all capital cities, and in the Queensland town of Biloela, yesterday calling on the Federal Government to allow the family to stay.

“This is senseless cruelty, this is cruelty for the sake of being cruel,” federal Greens leader Richard Di Natale told reporters at the rally in Melbourne.

Mr Dutton on Sunday night responded to the criticism on Twitter, calling the Greens leader’s comments “self-indulgent”.

Richard Di Natale supported decisions that resulted in 1200 people drowning at sea. His comments today are self-indulgent and promote nothing more than his own failed agenda. They are disgusting and should be condemned.

— Peter Dutton (@PeterDutton_MP) September 1, 2019

Mr Dutton also reiterated the family were not refugees, and the Government’s tough approach discouraged asylum seekers from arriving by boat.

“I have not had one death at sea on my watch and I don’t intend to let that happen now,” he wrote in an opinion piece in The Courier-Mail titled Why Tamil family must go.

It was also revealed the Australian Border Force stopped a boat carrying 13 suspected illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka on August 7.

The fishing boat was stopped west of Christmas Island, and the 13 people on-board returned to Sri Lanka, The Courier-Mail reported.

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese begged the Government to make an exception and let the Tamil family return to their adopted community of Biloela.

More than 230,000 people have signed an online petition to let them stay.

— With AAP

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