The asylum seeker parents of the Biloela family housed temporarily in Perth cannot work and must survive on $36 a day which has to cover their rent and bills.
The Tamil Murugappan family are living at an undisclosed location in Perth, after two years in offshore detention on Christmas Island, while four-year-old daughter Tharnicaa undergoes treatment for a blood infection.
Though there is relief that the Murugappan family is on the mainland to support their daughter’s recovery, conditions of the family’s community detention order are restrictive.
Tharnicaa Murugappan (pictured) was medically evacuated to Perth after being hospitalised on Christmas Island with a suspected blood infection. Her family are with her in Perth, but are subject to severe restrictions including a tight daily allowance to pay for rent and bills and having their movements controlled
Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews claimed reporting of Tharnicaa Murugappan’s condition – which is the reason the family was temporarily rehoused in Perth – has been inaccurate
They have an allowance of $252 a week to cover the cost of renting their home and utilities, cannot travel interstate or have visitors, or stay anywhere overnight, and are banned from formal study or holding jobs, the ABC reported.
Both previously worked while living in Biloela in Central Queensland.
‘They have to ask for permission if they’re going to spend a night anywhere else, for example, or if they want to have people stay there,’ Centre for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees general manager Joanna Josephs said.
‘They don’t really have the opportunity to live normal lives in Australia and have any sense of independence.’
Their living conditions were revealed as Labor called on Home Affairs minister Karen Andrews to apologise for suggesting Tharnicaa wasn’t as ill as has been reported.
‘I can’t answer anything that would give details of this child’s medical condition other than to say a lot of the reporting has been inaccurate,’ she told 4BC radio.
Tharnicaa reads a book from her bed in Perth hospital on Thursday where she is being treated for sepsis. The announcement comes amid growing calls for the federal government to resettle the family
Priya and Nades Murugappan (top left and right) and their two Australian daughters Tharnicaa, 4, and Kopika, 6,are temporarily living in Perth while Tharnicaa has treatment
‘The illness the child is suffering and is in hospital for has been well and truly treated, in the advice I have been given.’
Labor’s spokesman for multicultural affairs Andrew Giles lashed out in a statement on twitter over her comments.
‘It’s appalling that Minister Andrews speaks so carelessly and callously about a sick four-year-old girl,’ he wrote.
‘Tharnicaa got so sick in detention that she had to be evacuated to a Perth hospital, where she remains. The minister should reflect on her comments and she must apologise.’
Father Nades and mother Priya are both asylum seekers, having arrived in 2012 and 2013 respectively. They were granted temporary bridging visas and settled in Biloela in Central Queensland where they married and had two girls.
Nades Murugappan (pictured) and his Australian-born daughter Kopika, 6, leave Perth airport on June 15 after arriving back in the country from detention on Christmas Island
Mr Murugappan holds up the ID card of his Australian-born daughter Kopika as they arrived in Perth
Nades and Kopika of the Biloela family board a plane on Christmas Island bound for Perth on Tuesday (pictured at the airport) to be reunited with her sister and mother
Kopika was born in 2015 and Tharnicaa in 2017 – both in Australia.
In 2018 the family were removed from Biloela and placed in the Broadmeadows detention centre in Melbourne, before being taken to the offshore detention centre at Christmas Island in 2019.
They were detained on Christmas Island for more than two years and reunited at Perth Hospital this week, where Tharnicaa was being treated.
Father Nadesalingam ‘Nades’ Murugappan and his daughter Kopika, 6, were photographed in a car driving towards the hospital on Tuesday evening.
They were on their way to meet with Mr Murugappan’s wife Priya and four-year-old daughter Tharnicaa, who was flown to Western Australia from Christmas Island to treat the painful blood infection earlier this week.
The federal government has been weighing up what to do with the Sri Lankan asylum seeker family as it faces mounting pressure to let them stay in Australia, where both of their children were born. Pictured: Nades and Kopika of the Biloela family prepare to board a plane to Perth
The Biloela family have been detained on Christmas Island for more than two years (pictured, Nades and Kopika wave goodbye to the island)
They were not required to enter hotel quarantine as they have not left Australian soil, with Christmas Island being an Australian territory.
The federal government is under mounting pressure to let the Sri Lankan asylum seeker family stay in Australia permanently.
There was widespread outrage across the country after it was revealed young Tharnicaa was sent to the mainland with her mother for treatment while her father and sister remained at the detention centre.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on Tuesday announced the family would now be allowed to reside in Perth while their daughter receives treatment, granting the Tamil family a ‘community detention order’.
‘In making this determination I am balancing the government’s ongoing commitment to strong border protection policies with appropriate compassion in circumstances involving children in held detention,’ he said.
‘The family will now reside in suburban Perth through a community detention placement, close to schools and support services, while the youngest child receives medical treatment from the nearby Perth Children’s Hospital and as the family pursues ongoing legal matters.’
The Biloela family that have been detained on Christmas Island for more than two years have been reunited in Australia
The decision releases the family from held detention while they pursue ongoing litigation before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal Court and High Court.
But the decision does not create a pathway for a visa.
‘The government’s position on border protection has not changed. Anyone who arrives in Australia illegally by boat will not be resettled permanently,’ he said.
‘Anyone who is found to not be owed protection will be expected to leave Australia.’
Family friend Angela Fredericks said the decision is a welcome one for the long-suffering asylum seekers, but called for more to be done to bring the family back to their Central Queensland home, Biloela.
‘We are pleased that the Department of Home Affairs is finally taking this family off Christmas Island, after more than three years of sub-standard care in immigration detention in Melbourne and on Christmas Island,’ she said.
‘Nades is keen to get back to work in Biloela to support his young family, which he cannot do while the family is forced into community detention.
The family’s plight is back in the spotlight after four-year-old Tharnicaa was flown with her mother from Christmas Island to the mainland for medical treatment
Kopika (left) gets taken to school by guards while Priya stays inside to look after four-year-old Tharunicaa (right)
‘Priya wants to enrol Kopika at Biloela State School to continue her education. And we promised little Tharni a big birthday party when she got home.
‘Australia knows this family’s home is in Biloela.’
Labor leader Anthony Albanese rejected the argument showing the family compassion and exercising discretion would somehow restart the people-smuggling trade.
‘This is about a family who are here, this is not a threat to our national sovereignty,’ he said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government was considering its options and would take advice from medical experts at the Department of Home Affairs.
Pressure has been mounting on Mr Morrison to let the family stay in Australia, with politicians from across the spectrum calling for them to be allowed to return to Queensland.
Father Nades and Kopika, six, are set to reunite with mother Priya and Tharnicaa in Perth
He has signalled the government could finally back away from its hardline stance and allow the family to stay in Australia, at least on a temporary basis.
However, the prime minister said permanent resettlement was out of the question.
‘That wouldn’t be government policy for a pathway to permanent settlement – that is not the government’s policy,’ he said.
Nine health organisations representing tens of thousands of medical professionals across Australia have signed an open letter calling for the family’s release.
Paediatrician Jacqueline Small from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians said the children must be allowed to develop and grow in the community.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese rejected the argument that allowing the family to settle would somehow restart the people-smuggling trade. Pictured: Priya and Nades
‘We feel very strongly keeping these children in held detention, particularly offshore detention, represents an extreme and unacceptable risk to the children’s health, development and mental wellbeing,’ she told ABC radio.
Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce also supported calls for the family to stay in Australia for more than two years.
‘Tharnicaa and Kopika were born in Australia,’ he told Network Seven.
‘Now, maybe if their names were Jane and Sally and they were playing in their local netball side, we’d think twice about sending them back to another country which they’re not from.’
Mr Joyce also argued Mr and Mrs Murugappan had jobs and were valued members of their local community.
‘In regional Australia, we need people who have jobs. These people should be staying here.’