Mum of Biloela asylum-seeker family Kokilapathmapriy Nadarasa flown to hospital
The mother in a young Tamil family of four in Biloela was being treated in a Perth hospital on Sunday after an emergency medical evacuation flight.
The mother in a young Tamil family of four — the last asylum-seekers detained on the Australian territory of Christmas Island — was being treated in a Perth hospital on Sunday after an emergency medical evacuation flight.
Nadesalingam Murugappan and his wife, Kokilapathmapriy Nadarasa, were among more than 50,000 people who arrived in Australia by boat — mostly at Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands — during the Rudd-Gillard years.
The couple met and married in Australia after arriving separately on asylum boats in 2012 and 2013. Both have repeatedly been found not to be refugees but the Queensland community of Biloela, where they made a home, supports them.
They had two daughters in Australia while awaiting the outcome of rulings and appeals on their refugee status.
Their case is currently before the Federal Court.
The mother, known to friends as Priya, texted The Australian that she was OK on Sunday after being admitted to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth’s south.
The Australian has been told Priya, 44, had suffered stomach pain and vomiting over weeks and had been admitted to the island hospital several times.
It was past policy of both Labor and Coalition governments to allow spouses and children to accompany sick asylum-seekers on medical evacuation flights to capital city hospitals, or on commercial or charter flights soon after.
In recent years, however, asylum-seekers on Nauru and Christmas Island evacuated to the Australian mainland for medical treatment are generally flown alone, with the family staying behind.
The Australian has confirmed that Priya’s husband, known to friends as Nades, remains in the detention camp on Christmas Island with their two daughters Tharnicaa, 3, and Kopika, 5.
The family has been detained on Christmas Island, which once held thousands of asylum-seekers, for more than two years.
The family’s detention camp is under guard and they visit the recreation centre with guards three times a week.
The girls go to the local school and some Christmas Island families have become close friends.
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