Pressure mounts on Federal Government to release Tamil Biloela family from detention
Karen Andrews #KarenAndrews
Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews to finally do the right thing and let a Tamil asylum seeker family – held in immigration detention since March 2018 – return to their home in rural Queensland.
Three-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan was medically evacuated from Christmas Island to a Perth hospital yesterday with suspected sepsis, after suffering high temperatures, vomiting and diarrhoea since May 25.
Despite ongoing requests from her mother, Priya, detention centre staff allegedly refused to take Tharnicaa to hospital on the island until Sunday morning, instead handing her a piece of paper “that explained common flu symptoms”. The Department of Home Affairs issued a statement this morning strongly denying any delay of medical care.
In an update this morning, the #HometoBilo campaign said the little girl, who turns four next week, “has been diagnosed with (untreated) pneumonia”, which may have caused her blood infection.
Family supporter Angela Fredericks told AAP Tharnicaa is now stable in the Perth Children’s Hospital, and is not in immediate danger.
“They are continuing to run tests, as they are still not able to get her white cell counts where they should be,” Ms Fredericks said.
“She is hooked up to antibiotics … they are now treating the pneumonia, while they look for any other infection sites.”
The three-year-old’s current condition has thrown a harsh spotlight why it is that the family is still being held on Christmas Island, with family friends, politicians and advocates stating that “all of this could have been avoided”.
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“No man’s political ego or stubbornness is worth the life of a child,” Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who previously served as the party’s Immigration spokeswoman, wrote on Twitter this morning.
“Prime Minister @ScottMorrisonMP can make a decision right now to save these two little girls and stop their suffering. It is time they were allowed to come home to #biloela.”
Current Greens Immigration spokesman, Nick McKim, said in a statement the “family’s treatment has been appalling and disgraceful”.
“They have been exiled to a remote island, and detained indefinitely, having built a life for themselves in Queensland,” he said.
“Physical and mental health problems have always gone hand-in-hand with offshore detention – and yet their detention continues.
“It is beyond unconscionable that they would be sent back to Christmas Island.
“They must be resettled in our community urgently, before any more damage is done.”
“This child is almost 4. Almost her entire life has been behind wire,” Craig Foster wrote.
“It’s a level of cruelty so bewildering, but it’s happening in contemporary Australia, at obscene taxpayer expense. When will enough of us decide that torturing kids is not part of this country?”
Labor Senator Kristina Keneally – who visited the family on Christmas Island in April – wrote that the family “should not be in detention” but home in Biloela.
“All of this could have been avoided. Just let them go #hometobilo,” she tweeted.
Speaking to the ABC, family friend and supporter Bronwyn Dendle called said the fact Tharnicaa had been “so unwell for so long, and was continually dismissed” was “very disappointing and quite frankly dangerous”.
“If this family was home in Biloela where they should be, they would have had access to medical care and Priya would have been able to take her child when she knew she needed to go to the hospital, and have got the help she needed,” Ms Dendle said.
“She wouldn’t have been forced to wait 10 days before we could get her checked over by hospital doctors.
“This family needs to be returned to Biloela – there is no other way forward.”
Asked about the fate of the Murugappan family this morning, Karen Andrews said the Federal Government is looking at a “range of resettlement options”.
In her role as Home Affairs Minister, Ms Andrews has the power to intervene at any moment and allow the family – which includes Tharnicaa, Ms Murugappan, her husband Nades, and their oldest daughter, five-year-old Kopika, who, like her sister, was born in Australia – to remain here.
Mr and Ms Murugappan came to Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013 respectively, settling in Biloela – a town of about 6000 in Central Queensland – where they started a family. In March 2018 the family were taken into detention after they were denied a visa which would allow them to stay in Australia.
“We are going through the process now of investigating a range of resettlement options in relation to a number of different circumstances here in Australia,” Ms Andrews told reporters.
“I can’t make public commentary on that at the moment because I don’t want to disrupt those negotiations.”
While the family won a court battle to avoid deportation to Sri Lanka in February, they have remained in detention limbo – with their lawyer, Carina Ford, asking the Federal Government at the time to stop fighting the family in court and allow them to return to Biloela.
“There are several ministers who have always had the discretion within the immigration portfolio to release this family into the community while their legal matters are resolved,” she said.
“That was the case in 2018, 2019 and 2020. It remains the case now, too.
“The family should be released immediately from detention and we hope that this will occur.”