The family from Biloela

is back in the news.

For those of you in other parts of the world I need to explain. This is a family of mother, father and two young girls. The mother and father arrived here illegally by boat. They arrived separately from one another, met and married. They have since had the two girls.

Government policy - supported by both major parties - is that illegal boat arrivals should not be allowed to stay. The thinking behind this is that it will be a major deterrence to people smugglers. That has proved to be correct. 

The family was living in the small outback town of Biloela - until immigration officials picked them up and placed them in immigration detention. This was done because the parents were found not to be refugees and they had overstayed the temporary visas granted to them. Since then there has been a lengthy court and community battle to allow them to stay.  

A great deal has been said in the news. The "allow them to stay" side has had most of the air time available simply because government officials and the courts cannot comment. Demonstrations in support of the family also make good news footage for a number of reasons.

A determination about the next level of appeal will be made very shortly. Pressure is growing to allow the family to stay. It all sounds very heart-wrenching as we are shown pictures of the youngest child, now four, in hospital with pneumonia and sepsis. 

But is there more to the story than two illegal migrants wanting to claim refugee status in order to stay? Almost certainly yes. 

Having two children born here and claiming, for that reason alone, they should be permitted to stay is not sufficient. There are other children born here of temporary residents and they do not have the right to stay. Lawyers for the family are claiming special circumstances this time but will it work? I don't know. 

My own feeling is that the family is being used by others and so are some of their supporters. They are not being given good advice. They are being given advice which will keep the case alive as long as possible. The reasons given for this sound very worthy. We are being asked to "show support and compassion". Is that really what it is all about? 

A genuinely compassionate lawyer would have provided different advice based on what the father was originally told. He was told to go back to his home country and apply to migrate. It was an application which would almost certainly have been quickly dealt with. Approval would have been granted. He (and his family) had the support of a community in an area with very few migrants. He had employment there. There was also evidence that the family was integrating. By not going down this path things have become much more difficult. Millions of dollars have been wasted. 

The media is making it out that there is widespread and majority community support for the family to remain here. The reality is a little different. While support is considerable it is not majority support. When the facts are put in front of people there is considerably less support.

As someone who is all too well aware of the millions of people who would like to migrate here - especially from refugee camps - I am left feeling anxious about all this. What is happening is not really about this family and their rights at all. They are being used by people who have other agendas and that is very dangerous indeed.

Those who are going to suffer the most are two little girls who should be going out to play with their friends.