High Court refuses to hear case of Biloela child Tharnicaa Murugappan, 4, seeking protection visa
The youngest daughter of the Biloela family has been dealt a serious blow in their battle to remain in Australia.
The High Court of Australia has refused to hear the case of the four-year-old daughter of Tamil asylum seekers who settled in Biloela seeking a protection visa to remain in the country.
The court on Thursday morning denied a special leave request from Tharnicaa Murugappan’s lawyers to consider the appeal.
Her lawyers were set to challenge a law stating she cannot apply for a visa unless the Federal Immigration Minister exercises his discretion to allow it. The judgment was not a ruling on the family’s refugee status.
The Murugappan family have been fighting a three-year legal battle to remain in Australia since they were removed from their central Queensland home in 2018.
Following the High Court decision, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk threw her support behind the Murugappan family’s bid to “come home”.
“They live in Biloela and I believe they should go home to Biloela,” she said.
Carina Ford, Tharnicaa’s lawyer, said in a statement Immigration Minister Alex Hawke still had the power to grant the visa.
“The matter is now in the hands of the Immigration Minister and he or she is able at any point in time to grant a visa including a visa allowing the family to return to and live in Biloela where they would receive community support, stability, care and a sense of belonging,” she said.
BREAKING: The High Court of Australia has announced it will not hear an appeal claim lodged by the Muruguppan family from Biloela. The family remains in community detention in Perth, unable to leave despite three of the Muruguppan’s being granted bridging visas. 1/ #HomeToBilopic.twitter.com/1iuV1mfbn2
— HometoBilo (@HometoBilo) August 12, 2021
“The Australian people’s support in this case has been overwhelming as they have related to the family’s hardship and the fact both children were born in Australia.”
Ms Ford urged the minister to make the “ethical, economic and compassionate decision” to allow the Murugappans to return to Biloela.
The Murugappans are currently in community detention in Perth after receiving temporary bridging visas to travel to the mainland from Christmas Island after Tharnicaa fell seriously ill with a blood infection in June.
Both Tharnicaa and her older sister Kopika were born in Australia.
Parents Nades and Priya are Tamil, a group persecuted in their native Sri Lanka.
The couple arrived in Australia via separate boats in 2012 and 2013 before settling in the small rural town of Biloela – located about 570km northwest of Brisbane.
Due to their arrivals being deemed illegal, they cannot apply for citizenship and their children have also been denied citizenship by way of their birth in Australia.
The Murugappans were removed from their home by Australian Border Force officers in March 2018 after Priya’s visa expired.
They were first taken to Melbourne’s Broadmeadows detention centre before being flown to Christmas Island in 2019.
A court order prevented the family from being deported from Australia.
Their battle to remain in the country has drawn significant attention and support from human rights activists and the local Biloela community.