MALLEE MP Anne Webster is refusing to support attempts by friends and sympathisers to relocate the Murugappan family to their home town of Biloela, almost three years after they were confined to a detention centre on Christmas Island.
The family have recently been reunited in Perth, after their younger daughter Tharnicaa, 4, was evacuated from the island with her mother, after she developed a serious blood infection.
The youngster has now been released from Perth Children’s Hospital but will require eight weeks of further treatment for sepsis.
Parents Nades and Priya, part of the Sri Lankan Tamil minority, arrived on separate boats in 2012 and 2013 seeking asylum, and settled in rural Queensland.
Their two daughters, Tharnicaa and older sister Kopika, 6, were born in Australia but the family have been in detention since Priya’s visa expired in March 2018.
But Dr Webster has raised concerns that shifting government policy for this one family would set a dangerous precedent.
“The full Australian judicial system has determined that they are not legitimate refugees, and are not owed protection by Australia,” Dr Webster said.
“They were placed in detention under the former Labor Government and were assessed at that time as not being owed protection by Australia under the United Nations definition (ie they are not refugees),” Dr Webster told The Guardian.
“Their new living arrangements in Perth will bring some stability while their parents pursue ongoing legal matters.
“The decision to allow the family to reunite and remain in Perth does not create a pathway to a permanent visa,” she said.
Dr Webster’s stance flies in the face of advocates who work with refugees in Swan Hill and Kerang, and who are marking Refugee Week by campaigning on behalf of the Murugappan family.
Local retired high school teachers Jacqueline Hibbert and Judy Worrell have paid tribute to the family by setting up posters at the Sir John Gorton Library in Kerang, while the library has a selection of books relating to the refugee experience on display.
The two have convened the Gannawarra Refugee Support Group for six years, and have advocated for more humane refugee policy and assisted refugees in the Gannawarra and Swan Hill region.
“They have two little children, and children should never be incarcerated in detention centres,” Ms Hibbert said.
“They were both born in Australia and the family were very well received in Biloela.
“The father was a well regarded employee and the family were involved in the community – everything you want in a family coming to Australia,” she said.
Advocates dispute the statement that the family are not genuine refugees, and point specifically to the February 2021 decision to uphold the Federal Court’s decision that Tharnicaa, 4, was denied “procedural fairness” in her asylum claim.
The Biloela family have received support from across the political spectrum, including from now Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
A full statement from Dr Anne Webster is available at: https://cog-aap.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/n/450/2021/Jun/25/0052/2021-06-18 – Media Statement RE Tamil Family.pdf.
