Doctors call on federal government to release Biloela family

The College of Physicians asks the Morrison government to release the last family held in immigration detention.

Tharnicaa, the youngest daughter of the ‘Biloela family’, is comforted by her sister Kopica after being hospitalised with a suspected blood infection. Picture: Supplied

The Royal Australian College of Physicians has asked the Morrison government to release the last family held in the nation’s immigration detention centres.

The open letter to Home Affairs minister Karen Andrews stops short of asking her to grant permanent protection visas to the Tamil family but calls for their detention to end. The family had been living freely in the Queensland community of Biloela while the asylum claims of parents Priya and Nades Murugappan were assessed and appealed. When those appeals were exhausted, the family was taken into detention on the Australian mainland in March 2018 then in August 2019 they were moved to Christmas Island.

Daughters Kopika, 6, and Tharnicaa, who turned four in Perth Children’s Hospital on Saturday after being flown there last week with pneumonia, were born in Australia but inherited their parents’ immigration status. They attend the Christmas Island school and live under guard with their parents in a camp between the island swimming pool and rubbish tip. The family is taken on some outings by guards including to the recreation centre where they spend time with local families who have become close friends.

“It is time for the government to release the Biloela family from immigration detention, as a renewed sign of compassionate and humane Australian leadership,” the letter states.

The letter is signed by Jacqueline Small president-elect of The Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the leaders of eight other medical groups.

Immigration minister Alex Hawke has for the past week been considering the family’s case, set out in thousands of documents, and is expected to decide within weeks whether to use his discretionary powers to intervene. Under powers conferred to Australian immigration ministers by parliament, Mr Hawke can effectively choose to allow the family to stay in Australia by lifting the bar that prevents them from applying for a range of visas. Mr and Mrs Murugappan have been found not to be refugees but Mr Hawke could allow them to apply for work visas.

The letter, written on behalf of more than 25,000 doctors, stresses the family has now been living in detention for “most of the youngest child, Tharnicaa’s, life”.

“Being held in detention presents an extreme and unacceptable risk to children’s health, development and mental health,” the letter states.

“These risks are particularly high for infants and toddlers. If detention is prolonged, the consequences may be long term or permanent.

“Immigration detention is harmful to the physical and mental health of people of all ages. As medical experts, we believe that immigration detention is not an environment in which children can thrive and it is not appropriate to continue to hold children in detention.”

Mr and Mrs Murugappan arrived separately in Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013, before Kevin Rudd announced that all new arrivals would be sent offshore to Nauru or Manus Island and never settled in Australia.