The Project host Lisa Wilkinson has lashed the Australian government over the plight of a Tamil family ripped from their home in Biloela and sent to Christmas Island.

The Tamil family-of-four were rounded up from their Queensland home by Border Force immigration officials in March 2018 and later banished to Christmas Island.

They have since been caught in the middle of a long-running legal row to keep them in Australia, despite immigration minister Alex Hawke being able to grant residency. 

'It's heartbreaking,' blasted Ms Wilkinson after Waheed Aly interviewed the family together for the first time on the show on Thursday. 

'It looks to me like they're just political footballs, not human beings any more.'