Rithish Kirushnaneethan, a four-year-old Tamil boy, died in a house fire in Melbourne’s Southeast last Saturday. 

He leaves behind his two siblings and his parents, who sought refuge in Australia, and are still pursuing permanent protection. 

“The family have been moving between various places because they have been denied support from the Australian government,” said Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson Aran Mylvaganam.

He added:
“The Department of Home Affairs have unreasonably delayed processing the family’s asylum applications, despite completing the immigration interviews. The family has since struggled to find stable accommodation and have been living in fear that they will be deported.”

The Sri Lankan government is known to monitor the actions of asylum seekers and torture those who are forced to return to the island. Despite credible concerns, Australia’s strict immigration policies are maintained, and the Department of Home Affairs continued to withhold protection for families who do not meet their criteria. 

Journalist Ben Hiller highlights Australia's draconian immigration system noting that between 2009 and 2013, over 4,000 Tamil refugees sought asylum in Australia but in 2012 the Labour government instituted “enhanced screening” to make it more difficult for them to gain protection”. The following Liberal administration, made the situation worse under "Operation Sovereign Borders” with boats being intercepted at sea and asylum seekers handed over to the authorities from which they had fled in the first place.

Sri Lanka’s Former Prime Minister claimed that Australia’s silence on Sri Lanka’s appalling human rights record “was the price it paid to secure co-operation from the former Rajapaksa government on stopping asylum-seeker boats”. 

Read more here: Fascism, Australian style

The Kirushnaneethan family has suffered continued neglect from the government after they were detained on Christmas Island in 2012 before they were relocated to the mainland where they moved from Sydney, Perth, and Adelaide to Melbourne searching for financial security. 

The Kirushnaneethan family’s story is similar to many Tamil refugees in Australia who have been continuously rejected as “unreliable” and suffer deteriorating mental health and insecurity about their livelihoods.  

“What happened to Ritish is tragic. It is causing immense pain for the family, who have desperately been trying to rebuild their lives here.”

See the family’s GoFundMe that has been set up to pay for the funeral and help the mourning family: gofundme.com/f/funeral-for-rithish

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