Biloela family: Murugappans given three month bridging visas
A Sri Lankan family fighting to stop their deportation and settle in Biloela have been given three-month visas.
A Sri Lankan family fighting to stop their deportation and settle in Queensland have been given three-month bridging visas.
The Murugappan family were released from the Christmas Island detention centre this month when four-year-old Tharnicaa was flown to Perth for urgent medical treatment.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke had originally put the family into community detention in Perth.
But on Wednesday, he decided to give the family work and study right visas for three months while Tharnicaa undergoes ongoing treatment and during their court case to stay in Australia — preferably in the regional Queensland town of Biloela.
“Under section 195A a minister can intervene to grant a person a visa if it is in the public interest to do so,” he said.
“This decision allows three members of the family to reside in the Perth community on bridging visas while the youngest child’s medical care, and the family’s legal matters, are ongoing. The fourth family member’s visa status is unchanged.
“The family will continue to have access to healthcare, support services, housing and schooling in the Perth community.”
The girl and her mother, Priya, had been flown to Perth two weeks ago after she became unwell on May 25. On Saturday, Tharnicaa was discharged from Perth Children’s Hospital but will receive ongoing treatment for an infection caused by untreated pneumonia.
They are now reunited Kopika, 6, and parents Priya and Nades Murugappan, who have spent more than three years in immigration detention centres including Christmas Island.
Now they are out of detention, both parents will be allowed to work and Kopica will be able to go to school. But the family will not be allowed to go to Biloela.
The family’s community detention in a Perth house came with conditions and rules imposed by the Department of Home Affairs.
The family were not able to stay elsewhere, visitors were not allowed to stay overnight and neither parent was permitted to work.
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