Biloela family says daughter Tharnicaa, 3, sent from Christmas Island to Perth hospital

A Queensland-born daughter of a Tamil asylum seeker family has been medically evacuated from Christmas Island with suspected blood infection.

The youngest daughter in a Tamil family seeking Australian asylum has been medically evacuated from Christmas Island to a Perth hospital after suffering a suspected blood infection.

Tharnicaa Murugappan, a three-year-old child whose family has become known as the Biloela family - in reference to the Queensland town where they lived before being detained on Christmas Island - was medically evacuated on Monday and accompanied by her mother.

Family advocates said in a statement posted to Twitter the girl had been sick for about two weeks, suffering fevers, vomiting and dizziness.

“I’m feeling very scared and worried for my little girl,” Tharnicaa’s mother Priya said according to the statement.

“She has been sick for many days, it took a long time for her to get to the hospital.

BREAKING: Tharnicaa (nearly 4 years old) is being medically evacuated to Perth for treatment of a suspected blood infection. She was hospitalised yesterday on CI after suffering a high fever, vomiting/diarrhoea & dizziness for 10 days. Pls keep our little cockatoo in your hearts. pic.twitter.com/ynnT5uNQIh

— HometoBilo (@HometoBilo) June 7, 2021

“She is already asking for her papa, it is going to be very hard being away from her dad and sister. It is very hard for our family to be separated when our daughter is sick.”

The statement said Ms Murugappan first asked for medical attention for her daughter on May 25 when the girl ran a fever, but that she only received over-the-counter painkillers.

A pair of pictures included with the statement showed the three-year-old crying in a hospital bed while her sister comforted her with a kiss on the cheek.

Tharnicaa Murugappan, almost four, has been medically evacuated from Christmas Island.

Priya and her husband Nades came to Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013, respectively, and made a life for themselves in Biloela where Tharnicaa and her sister Kopika were born.

Though both girls were born in Queensland, the Federal court ruled that they were considered “unauthorised maritime arrivals” under Australian law, the same status assigned to their parents.

In March 2018 the family were taken into detention after they were denied a visa which would allow them to stay in Australia.

In August 2019 they were transferred to Christmas Island.

They have fought to remain in Australia and Biloela ever since.

The Biloela community started the #HomeToBilo campaign which went national, calling on the government to allow the family to live in the community that has embraced them.