Opinion | Home for Christmas? But for asylum seekers, Australia’s actions border on inhumane
- As Australia nears its vaccination threshold and plans to reopen its borders, those trapped overseas should put the government’s policies into perspective
- For those seeking refuge, such as the Murugappan family, home remains a broken promise, and many do not know if they will ever have one again

Home for Christmas! What a hope that is to raise. What a sound bite. It’s almost as if a federal election has to be called by next May, and the Australian government last week decided to wind back its own increasingly unpopular closed-borders policy with enough time to take credit for it before the polls.
Weddings and birthdays have been missed. Funerals, too. Little ones have learned that some family members are only available through screens; those a little older have learned that sight and sound are poorer without a tactile component. Everyone looks a little greyer, even when the signal is strong, and a little more frayed around the edges.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement of the reopening of Australia, signalling an end to one of the world’s strictest restrictions on travel, is imminent as inoculation rates in states approach the 80 per cent threshold for fully vaccinated residents. Never mind that this position is the result of a badly fumbled vaccine roll-out, or that it has taken the arrival of a more virulent form of Covid-19 to move away from the national addiction to closed borders – the relief is almost palpable. We are so very close.
For some, however, home remains a broken promise.
In March 2018, a family of Tamil asylum seekers was forcibly taken from their family home in the country town of Biloela, Queensland, after their bridging visa expired. Priya and Nades Murugappan, who fled the civil war in Sri Lanka, had two daughters, Kopika and Tharunicaa, during their time in Australia; all four were held in Melbourne that year after their asylum claims were rejected.