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Dutton says treatment of Tamil family sends ‘bad message’ to smugglers

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Defence Minister Peter Dutton has expressed his frustration after a family of Tamil asylum seekers has been temporarily relocated from Christmas Island to Perth.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The family will not be allowed back to their Queensland hometown of Biloela and will stay in Perth until their legal fight against deportation is resolved.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dutton has long argued the family isn’t owed protection and should be deported back to Sri Lanka.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“It’s been a frustrating case because every court, every tribunal, every decision-maker has been very clear to this family that they are not refugees,” Dutton said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This family has not ever been found to be owed protection.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We’ve got to be very careful,” he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dutton also spoke to 2GB radio, claiming that showing the family compassion by allowing them to stay would send the wrong message to people smugglers.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I wish her every good health and speedy return back to Sri Lanka,” he said.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">“But this is a situation that is of their own making, it is ridiculous, it is unfair on their children, and it sends a very bad message to other people who think they can rort the system as well.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has called out Dutton’s claims, saying it “preposterous” to suggest people smugglers were following the case.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This is a family of a meat worker, his wife and two-Australian-born kids from a regional town in Queensland,” he told reporters.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“They should just let them go back there and live out their lives.”</span></p>

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Tamil family to reunite on mainland

<p>A family of Tamil asylum seekers that have been detained on Christmas Island since 2019 will be allowed to live in Perth temporarily.</p> <p>Immigration Minister Alex Hawke said that he used his powers under the Migration Act to allow the Murugappan family to live in Perth while four-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan.</p> <p>"The family will now reside in suburban Perth through a community detention placement, close to schools and support services, while the youngest child receives medical treatment from the nearby Perth Children's Hospital and as the family pursues ongoing legal matters," he said in a statement.</p> <p>"Today's decision releases the family from held detention and facilitates ongoing treatment, while they pursue ongoing litigation before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal Court and High Court.</p> <p>"Importantly, today's decision does not create a pathway to a visa."</p> <p>The Murugappan family were removed from their home in Biloela in 2018 when their visas expired.</p> <p>Angela Fredericks, a family friend and organiser of the group Home to Bilo, said that it was up to Mr Hawke and the Department of Home Affairs to determine the family's future in Australia.</p> <p>"The Minister's power to grant visas is completely independent from the decisions of any court," Ms Fredericks said in a statement.</p> <p>"We cannot say what — or who — is preventing Minister Hawke from bringing this family home to Bilo. But it is not this court matter."</p> <p><em>Photo credits: <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-15/tamil-family-murugappan-christmas-island/100215160" target="_blank">ABC</a></em></p>

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“Anchor babies”: Peter Dutton’s harsh label for Tamil children facing deportation

<p>Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has made a controversial statement surrounding the children in a Tamil asylum-seeker family that are facing deportation.</p> <p>He’s called the children “anchor babies”.</p> <p>"It's been made very clear to them at every turn that they were not going to stay in Australia and they still had children," Mr Dutton told 2GB radio on Thursday.</p> <p>"We see that overseas in other countries – anchor babies, so-called – and the emotion of trying to leverage a migration outcome based on the children."</p> <p>The Sri Lankan couple who are facing deportation came to Australia by boat separately several years ago before having two children.</p> <p>They currently are in detention on Christmas Island as the Federal Court decides whether the youngest child, age 2, is eligible for protection in Australia.</p> <p>Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally first raised the idea of debate around the Biloela family and that it was straying into “anchor baby” territory.</p> <p>"This is an importation, quite frankly, of an American debate about so called 'anchor babies' and the law is very different in the United States where citizenship is accorded to anybody born on American soil," she said during an ABC radio interview.</p> <p>"That is not the law in Australia so it's an importation of that debate."</p> <p>However, Keneally is aware that the issue at hand is that Australians want the family to stay and integrate them into community.</p> <p>"It's not simply the act of having a child," she said.</p> <p>Dutton believes that it’ll take some time to resolve.</p> <p>"I think it will go on now for potentially a couple of months because lawyers will try and delay and that's part of the tactic," he said.</p> <p>"They think that if they delay they can keep the pressure up on the government and we'll change our mind in relation to this case."</p>

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