There have been many sad tales of migrants denied the right to settle in Australia and once again a family awaiting deportation on Christmas Island has a court win that will delay the inevitable. Priya and her partner Nadesaslingam are from Sri Lanka and they have a valid reason to fear returning to their former homeland.
They are Tamils, and Sri Lanka fought a long and bitter civil war. The Tamils were on the losing side and as a consequence they suffer reprisals from the victors. Jobs and education are denied them and the outflow is seeing Tamil refugees seeking a new life in many other parts of the world..
This family has two Australian born daughters, Kopika (4) and two year old Tharunicaa. They were living happily in Biloela, Queensland when they were detained during a police raid in 2018 and taken to Melbourne. From there it has been an ongoing life in detention, culminating in them now being the only detainees in the vast detention centre on Christmas island - and that is costing the Australian government somewhere in the region of twenty thousand dollars a day to keep open.
Their supporters - and there are many - were delighted when they won a small victory. In the Federal Court in Melbourne last week a Justice found that Immigration Minister David Coleman had taken a procedural step to consider using Federal powers to allow Tharunicaa to apply for a visa. That meant she was denied procedural fairness because she was not notified her case was being assessed in August 2019, or invited to comment.
This victory will not allow them to stay in Australia, but it will mean that the minister will have to take a new approach to that visa application decision. That probably means that their stay on Christmas island will be extended and they fear for the mental health of their daughters. Growing up as prisoners is a far different life from the normality of their former immersion in the community of Biloela in Queensland.
Once again the final decision will probably be influenced by pressure from the Australian community. The good citizens of Biloela want them back and have been noisily petitioning on their behalf. At the same time, the Commonwealth must maintain vigilance that its immigration laws are being scrupulously obeyed to achieve a fair migrant inflow.
Sadly, it is a young couple and their two Australian born children who are caught in the middle. It illustrates the impossibility of ignoring the emotional angle when immigration is decided purely on the letter of the law !
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