Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, says the Tamil family from Biloela detained on Christmas Island are not eligible to be resettled in the US or New Zealand, despite the foreign affairs minister saying earlier this week that those options were being considered.
On Tuesday Andrews was asked about the Murugappan family, who have been held on Christmas Island since August 2019 at a cost of at least $6.7m to taxpayers while an immigration legal battle has been fought. She said a “range of resettlement options” was being considered for “a number of different circumstances”.
This was widely interpreted as applying to the family, and supported by the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, later saying the “two options” being considered were the US and New Zealand.
On Thursday Andrews told Seven’s Sunrise program she was not considering resettlement options for the family because they are not classified as refugees. She said she had in fact been referring to the men transferred from Manus Island and Nauru to Australia for medical care under the former medevac legislation.
“It was a very general comment in relation to cohorts that we have here in Australia that I’m on the record as saying that we will be working with New Zealand in terms of refugees who have been [medically evacuated] here to Australia,” she said.
Andrews told the ABC the family did not have access to any refugee resettlement agreement with the US or New Zealand because in the case of three out of four of the family members, they have been found not to be refugees.
The youngest child of the family, Tharnicaa, will spend her fourth birthday on Saturday in Perth children’s hospital being treated for sepsis caused by untreated pneumonia.
Tharnicaa and her mother, Priya, were medically evacuated from Christmas Island to Perth on Monday after the girl had been sick for 10 days. Priya said she and her husband, Nades, had raised the alarm about Tharnicaa’s condition days before she was flown to hospital.
The child has seen an infectious diseases expert and is awaiting blood test results, which could return as soon as Friday. Her health has improved but it is expected Tharnicaa will remain in hospital over the weekend.
As part of the legal case brought on Tharnicaa’s behalf, the immigration minister, Alex Hawke, must consider whether to lift the bar that now prevents Tharnicaa from applying for a visa. Guardian Australia understands that Hawke has the brief from Tharnicaa’s lawyers and is considering his decision.
The Home to Bilo campaign calling for the family to be returned to the Queensland town of Biloela welcomed the news that Hawke is considering Tharnicaa’s case.
“This is a promising step from a minister who has always had the power to let this family come home to Biloela,” the campaign said.
“As soon as minister Hawke looks at the facts, we hope and believe that our friends will be reunited and released from immigration detention. Priya and her family just want to be safe and free.”
Nine newspapers have reported that Liberal backbenchers are quietly pushing within the government for the family to be resettled in Australia. But publicly some continue to argue against it as part of the government’s “strong on borders” rhetoric.
The attorney general, Michaelia Cash, reportedly told an event in Perth that the parents knew the rules when they had children in Australia and warned about the “consequences of blinking” on border policy.
Andrews said the government’s policy wasn’t “a case of being mean” but of having a strong border policy.
“Obviously, we are concerned for the welfare of people who are in Australia, and I am assured by Border Force that they are doing everything they can to make sure that that particular family is well accommodated on Christmas Island.”