Labor has no right to be proud of Tamil family's return to Biloela

June 1, 2022
Issue 
Kopika and Tharnicaa watch the election results from their temporary home in WA. Photo: Bring Priya, Nades and their girls home to Biloela/Facebook

The Murugappan family has become the human face of Australia鈥檚 cruel, punitive refugee policy.

Tamil asylum seekers Nades, Priya and their two children, Kopika and Tharnicaa聽have suffered the whole gamut of temporary visas, bridging visas, attempted deportation, offshore detention and, most recently, community detention in Western Australia.

Priya and Nades came to Australia separately by boat in 2012 and 2013. Both fled the aftermath of the decades-long civil war in Sri Lanka that came to a head in 2009.

That year, while the world looked the other way, the Sri Lankan government waged a systematic assault on聽Tamils that lasted a relentless five months. About聽40,000鈥70,000 Tamils were killed; credible estimates put the figure at twice that. Over 26 years of civil war, about 900,000 Tamils were displaced.

The United Nations聽special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, following a visit in July 2017, reported that Sri Lankan security forces routinely used torture and this continues despite claims of reform. Human Rights Watch reported in 2018 on the military occupation鈥檚 鈥渃ruel legacy鈥 on Tamil civilian life in the north and east of the island.

This is why Priya and Nades sought asylum.

Nades, like many Tamil youth, was recruited as a child soldier to the Tamil Tigers during the civil war. Before meeting Nades, Priya watched her former fianc茅 burned be alive, along with five other Tamil men.

Anyone with an ounce of humanity would consider this adequate reason to seek asylum.

Instead, Labor and Coalition governments have locked people up indefinitely in offshore prisons, refused to settle anyone arriving by boat and, under Operation Sovereign Borders, turned back asylum seeker boats.

We are told this is about 鈥渟aving lives at sea鈥 and putting 鈥減eople smugglers鈥 out of business. We are told that people arriving by boat and seeking asylum is 鈥渋llegal鈥.

But the breaches in law are being carried out by government. Australia is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which recognises that refugees often need to enter a country without permission, or with false documents, to obtain protection.

Under Article 31, signatories cannot punish refugees for entering or living without permission, or unnecessarily restrict their freedom of movement. Further, the convention states that refugees cannot be returned to a place where they may be persecuted. This principle is known as non-refoulement.

The former Coalition government insisted it was safe for Tamils to return to Sri Lanka. The 鈥渢urn-back鈥 policy means that some asylum seekers from Sri Lanka, who have attempted to reach our shores, intercepted and they have been taken prisoner by the Australian Navy. The navy sunk their boats and forcibly returned them to the very regime they were fleeing.

Proving its commitment to Operation Sovereign Borders, the new Labor government announced after two days in office that it had instructed a boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers to be turned back.

There was little said about the 40 asylum seekers who were being forcibly returned to the regime they were trying to escape. The media outrage focused on the outgoing Scott Morrison government deciding to break convention and publicise the boat turn-back on election day.

The text to voters was craven opportunism, grounded in racism.

We are thrilled that Priya,聽Nades and their two children can return to Biloela in Queensland, but we must keep the pressure on Labor.聽As Home to Bilo campaigner Angela Fredericks said, this family are not safe until they have permanent聽residency.

Interim home affairs minister Jim Chalmers said the family would 鈥渞eside lawfully in the community鈥 while they work to resolve their immigration status. 鈥淭his decision will allow them to get 鈥榟ome to Bilo鈥, a big-hearted and welcoming Queensland town that has embraced this beautiful family.鈥

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is reported to have said he was 鈥減roud鈥 to describe the family鈥檚 return to Biloela. Frankly, he has no right to be.

The family is returning to a new environment of uncertainty, under the cloud of a temporary bridging visa. They must be given permanent residency. It can be done, as has so often been pointed out, at the stroke of a pen.

While Labor seeks to ride the wave of sympathy for the Murugappan family, it has been careful not to give confidence to others seeking permanency that the road is guaranteed. It keeps reiterating its commitment to Operation Sovereign Borders.

If the Murugappan family happened to be seeking safety today on a boat, Albanese would be forcibly returning them to Sri Lanka.

It is impossible to have a humane asylum seeker policy based on turn-backs and a rejection of Australia鈥檚 obligations under the Refugee Convention.

Public approval of Operation Sovereign Borders rests on denying the truth that there are many beautiful individuals and families, whose names and faces we do not know, who get on boats in fear for their lives.

These people have a right to ask Australia for protection and a safe place to rebuild their lives.

This government can only claim to be proud if it overhauls the whole system, gives permanency to all those on temporary visas, supports family reunions and ends the brutal turn-backs policy. We have to keep the pressure up.

[Janet Parker is a member of the and is active in the Refugee聽Rights聽Action Network聽WA.]

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