Tough love needed on borders

By all accounts, the Murugappan family of four were a well-liked and welcome addition to the rural Queensland community of Biloela. This does not change the fact they do not qualify legally for refugee status to remain in Australia. Using the system to frustrate efforts to return them to Sri Lanka is their right. But it has come at considerable emotional cost for the family and their supporters, and great frustration for the federal government, which is attempting to uphold the integrity of the nation’s immigration system.

The federal government will satisfy few people with its decision to reunite the family in Perth, where one young daughter, accompanied by her mother, has been receiving medical attention. With the government having appeared to buckle to what has become the latest cause celebre, calls for the family to be allowed to stay have become louder across the political spectrum. Liberal backbencher Katie Allen used social media to say the situation had “gone on for too long”. Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt described the family’s predicament as cruel, and Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce made the offensive remark that things might have been different if the children had been called Jane and Sally rather than Tharnicaa and Kopika. Nationals MP Ken O’Dowd, whose electorate includes Biloela, has lobbied for the family to be allowed to stay. And Anthony Albanese asked in question time on Tuesday: “Why won’t the government let this family go home to Bilo?”

For clarity, delays in resolving the Murugappan case are mostly the result of the family’s refusal to accept the ruling that denied them refugee status. Mr Bandt is concerned with winding back the nation’s immigration laws more generally in line with the Greens’ appalling record on the issue. Mr Joyce has confirmed his populist tendencies and lack of critical judgment. And Mr O’Dowd, like the Opposition Leader, is getting carried away with parochial considerations rather than the broader national interest.

The popularity of the Murugappan family has made it difficult for many otherwise intelligent people to understand that when it comes to border security the rule of law will always be more important than the law of the social media jungle. Success in closing down the people-smuggler trade through hard political decisions to turn back boats and institute offshore detention and processing has allowed some people to forget the stakes involved. The government must not allow the lessons of the past to be lost. There is no doubt the government faces a difficult situation largely of its own making. It is hard to understand why, once the refugee status application had been rejected, the family was sent to detention on Christmas Island rather than have the legal process completed with the family in community detention in Biloela. Having made the decision to reunite the family in Perth on compassionate grounds, the government now faces demands that it turn its back on the legal process and let them stay.

Experience has shown that tough love is the only effective policy to deal with illegal immigration and border protection. People-smugglers will exploit any sign of weakness to restart their deadly trade. It would be doubly unfortunate if the legacy of the Murugappan case were to encourage other asylum-seekers to use their children’s health as bargaining chips to strengthen their case to stay. Some argue the fact the two young girls were born in Australia should change the refugee determination. Priya and Nadesalingam Murugappan left Sri Lanka and arrived by boat in 2012 and 2013. Kopika, 6, and Tharnicaa, 4, were born in Australia and moved with them into detention in March 2018 after their parents’ claims for asylum were rejected. Under the Migration Act, Australian-born children of asylum-seekers who arrived by boat take on the visa status of their parents at the time. In 2016, the Immigration Department concluded that Ms Murugappan’s case did not engage Australia’s protection obligations, a decision affirmed by the Immigration Assessment Authority in August 2017. Tharnicaa was born in June 2017. Unsuccessful appeals were lodged regarding Ms Murugappan’s right to legal protections in the Federal Circuit Court, the Federal Court and the High Court. An application to the High Court had been made for a temporary visa and a citizenship application had also been appealed.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke confirmed on Tuesday the family would live in community detention in Perth while the legal matters proceed, but he said the decision to reunite the family there was not a “pathway for a visa”. The government has no choice but to stick to the letter of the law.