A motion calling on the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, to urgently consider the visa applications of the family of a Tamil asylum seeker who self-immolated in Geelong last month has passed the Senate with support from the Australian Labor party and the Australian Greens.

Leo Seemanpillai, a 29-year-old asylum seeker on a bridging visa, took his own life last month leaving many in the community where he lived in Geelong, Victoria, in shock.

Seemanpillai’s parents, who live in a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu, India, have been attempting to obtain travel visas to attend his funeral in Australia, which is scheduled for Wednesday.

Neither of his parents, who are refugees from Sri Lanka, hold passports. According to the Tamil Refugee Council in Victoria, the Australian high commission in Chennai advised it could not assist the family.

Seemanpillai’s brother does hold a passport and yet was still rejected for a travel visa by the Australian high commission.

In a letter to Seemanpillai’s brother, the high commission wrote: “You are unemployed, you have no savings, no assets, and you are unskilled; as such, you are in a state of financial disadvantage.

“You have stated that your purpose in visiting Australia is to attend your brother’s funeral. I do not doubt the sincerity of your desire to pay your last respects to your late brother, however I consider that the assessment above that you do not genuinely intend temporary stay in Australia outweighs this consideration.”

A spokeswoman for the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, said the office had “no power to intervene in the granting of a visa in the circumstances that relate to the case of Mr Seemanpillai’s brother”.

But according to immigration department documentation, the minister does have the power to intervene on travel visas in cases of public interest.

According to a recent report on ministerial intervention, “the public interest powers provide the minister with flexibility within the visa framework to assist a person who is in exceptional or unforeseen circumstances or subject to unintended consequences of the migration laws”.

The Greens immigration spokeswoman, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, said the Senate vote showed it was “time for the minister to have a heart and show some compassion towards a grieving family”.

“This family deserves better and the passing of this motion today shows that now is the time for the minister to change his mind, and to do the right thing so that they can say goodbye one last time,” she said.

Aran Mylvaganam, a spokesman for the Tamil Refugee Council, told Guardian Australia that if any member of Seemanpillai’s family were granted a visa, the funeral would be postponed until they could arrive.

Many of Seemanpillai’s close friends told Guardian Australia that he had been constantly concerned about the status of his visa after he was granted only temporary protection by the Australian government and resettled in Geelong.

“He went through so much in his life, and when he came to Australia he was given a visa that is filled with plenty of uncertainty. He couldn't accept that,” said one close friend, Annan.



“Leo would always talk about his visa status … He would always worry about what would happen to him.”