Hopes detained Tamil family may be moved to Christmas Island duplex

Repairs have been made to a Christmas Island duplex that may be used by a detained family pending their daughter’s court case.

Australian Border Force recently ordered repairs and security upgrades, including outdoor CCTV, at a property the commonwealth owns in the Christmas Island residential suburb of Drumsite. Picture: Colin Murty

The Morrison government is preparing for the possibility its dispute with the lone family in immigration detention on Christmas Island could take at least ­another year to resolve.

Nades Murugappan, his wife, Priya Nadarasa, and their ­Australian-born daughters, Kopika, 4, and Tharunicaa, 2, have lived in detention on the mainland and on Christmas Island since they were removed from their home in Bileola, Queensland, two years ago.

Their case returns to the Federal Court on Friday, but The Australian has learned neither Home Affairs nor the family’s lawyers is confident a final decision on whether the family can stay in Australia will be reached soon.

The Australian has learned Australian Border Force recently ordered repairs and security upgrades, including outdoor CCTV, at a property the commonwealth owns in the Christmas Island residential suburb of Drumsite so the family could be moved there.

It is a duplex with a common wall to an identical house that would allow guards from government contractor Serco to live on one side while the family lived on the other. The work so far has cost about $120,000.

There was hope the family would be moved over concerns about the toll of long-term detention on the children.

The Australian understands the house was prepared only as a contingency in case the ABF needed to put Wuhan evacuees at the camp where the family is ­detained or one across the road for quarantine. That did not occur, but advocates hope the family can still go to the house.

Between 2007 and 2009, ­asylum-seeker families often lived in that house and others nearby while their claims were tested. When the number of asylum-seekers boat arrivals began to accelerate under the previous Labor government, all families were placed in “camps” on the island.

Mr Murugappan, Ms Nadarasa and their daughters have been at a camp near the island’s recreation centre and public school since March 2019.

The family is well known to some locals, who visit them at the recreation centre. The girls have friends. Kopika goes to school and Tharunicaa goes to a playgroup.

Their accommodation at the camp — a collection of transportable cabins — is basic and the children sleep in the same cabin and bed as their parents. This is because Ms Nadarasa is fearful about leaving the children where she cannot see them while people she does not know are working in the camp as guards.

The family’s camp is near the recreation centre but since a television crew filmed them walking back from a regular visit there two weeks ago, Serco now takes the family to the centre in a bus.

The case before the court on Friday is a decision on the refugee status of younger daughter Tharunicaa, whose claim to stay in Australia has never been assessed.

Her parents have been found not to be refugees.