A Tamil asylum seeker family from Biloela will be reunited on Australian shores and allowed to live in the Perth community, the government has announced.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke on Tuesday said the Murugappan family would reside in suburban Perth through a community detention placement, while youngest daughter Tharnicaa receives medical treatment at a nearby hospital.
But he warned that the decision to release the family from Christmas Island detention centre "does not create a pathway to a visa".
"Today’s decision releases the family from held detention and facilitates ongoing treatment, while they pursue ongoing litigation before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Federal Court and High Court," Mr Hawke said in a statement.
"As required by court orders, I will consider at a future date whether to lift the statutory bar presently preventing members of the family from reapplying for temporary protection, for which they have previously been rejected," he said.
The family has been in immigration detention for more than three years amidst a protracted legal battle over their right to remain in Australia, having been taken from their Biloela home in 2018 after their visas expired.
Renewed attention has been placed on their situation after four-year-old Tharnicaa was medically evacuated to Perth for treatment for pneumonia and sepsis last week, with her mother Priya by her side.
They have been separated from older sister Kopika and father Nades, who remained in detention on the Christmas Island.
Family friend Angela Fredericks welcomed news on Tuesday that the family would be reunited on the mainland after "more than three years of sub-standard care in immigration detention".
However, she said supporters hoped and assumed that placing the family in community detention was only a temporary step.
"Nades is keen to get back to work in Biloela to support his young family, which he cannot do while the family is forced into community detention. Priya wants to enrol Kopika at Biloela State School to continue her education. And we promised little Tharni a big birthday party when she got home," she said in a statement.
"Australia knows this family’s home is in Biloela."
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, meanwhile, called for the Immigration Minister to grant the family a permanent visa "as he has the power to do".
The centre said the family would remain in limbo with no work rights while in community detention.
"They think this move will take pressure [and] public attention off this, it will only intensify it," the ASRC said on Twitter.
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2021-06-15 01:17:27Z
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