Australian-born Tharnicaa has spent every birthday in immigration detention.
Today she turns four while being treated for pneumonia and sepsis, a life-threatening blood infection, at Perth Children's Hospital.
While her mother Priya is with her, Tharnicaa's father Nades and older sister Kopika remain in detention on Christmas Island far off the coast of northern Western Australia.
The Tamil family have been held there since August 2019 but their legal battle to remain in the country stretches back years.
Here's how the case has unfolded.
supplied
)Nades and Priya flee Sri Lanka
Nadesalingam Murugappan, better known as Nades, arrived in Australia by boat in 2012 to seek asylum from persecution in Sri Lanka.
According to court documents from June 2018, Nades claimed he was forced to join the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2001.
The Tamil Tigers fought to create an independent state during a bloody 26-year civil war but were defeated in 2009.
Tamils report they still face retribution and Nades has said he was harassed by the Sri Lankan military and bears scars from a government bomb blast.
Kokilapathmapriya Nadesalingam, known as Priya, also arrived by boat in 2013 to seek asylum.
Priya has said she fled Sri Lanka after she saw her then-fiance and five other men from her village burned alive by the army.
Both Nades and Priya arrived in Australia without a visa and were considered "unlawful maritime arrivals" under Commonwealth law.
They were granted temporary bridging visas and settled in the central Queensland town of Biloela, which had welcomed refugees for years.
The pair married and their first daughter, Kopika, was born in May 2015.
Tharnicaa was born in June 2017.
Supplied: Tamil Refugee Council
)Family removed from Biloela home
On March 4, 2018, Priya's visa expired.
At dawn the next day, Nades, Priya and the two girls were removed from their home and placed into the custody of Border Force officials.
The family were then flown to the Broadmeadows detention centre in Melbourne.
Tharnicaa celebrated her first and second birthdays behind wire mesh fences.
The removal of the family outraged the Biloela community, who started the Home to Bilo campaign to bring them back.
Supplied: @HometoBilo
)Federal MP Ken O'Dowd, whose electorate Flynn includes Biloela, said the family did not qualify for refugee status and had exhausted all appeal processes.
In June 2018, the Federal Circuit Court rejected the family's appeal against deportation.
Justice Caroline Kirton found the initial assessment by the Immigration Assessment Authority, which denied refugee status, had been properly conducted.
Justice Kirton also noted that Nades had returned to Sri Lanka on three occasions during the civil war and there was no evidence to suggest his family still living in Sri Lanka was at risk from authorities.
The family were able to remain in Australia while they waited for an appeal to be heard, but that was also lost.
Deportation attempt interrupted
On the night of Thursday, August 29, 2019, the family were removed from the immigration detention centre to be taken to Sri Lanka.
Supporters arrived at Melbourne Airport to protest the imminent deportation, with some gaining access to the tarmac.
An injunction to prevent them from being removed from the country was granted while the plane was en route to Darwin.
The family were then moved to the immigration detention centre on Christmas Island, which was closed in July that year.
Tharnicaa celebrated her third birthday at the centre — she and her sister are the only children in an Australian immigration detention centre.
Injunctions have prevented the family from being deported while the courts determine whether Tharnicaa is eligible for refugee protection.
Supplied: Angela Fredericks
)Fresh calls to grant visas after Tharnicaa's illness
There are growing calls for the family to be allowed to remain in Australia, or at least to be released back into the community while legal bids continue.
There are specific concerns about the two girls remaining in detention for so long, and the quality of medical care the family is receiving on Christmas Island.
In July 2020, Priya was flown to Perth for medical treatment after experiencing severe abdominal pain and vomiting for two weeks.
Tharnicaa had been unwell for 10 days before she was medically evacuated with a suspected blood infection earlier this week.
Family friend Angela Fredericks said Tharnicaa was being treated for pneumonia, which was believed to have caused the sepsis.
Australian Medical Association WA branch president Andrew Miller cautioned against the child being returned to Christmas Island.
"I think we should be having a long, hard think about whether in a psychological and social sense it is safe to discharge her from hospital back to the environment she came from," Dr Miller said.
Former High Court chief justice Sir Gerard Brennan told the Sydney Morning Herald that cruelty was being inflicted upon Tharnicaa to punish her parents.
Supplied: Change.org
)Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese has said the Minister for Home Affairs has the power to grant the family visas and should do so.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan have both called on the federal government to make a decision about the family's residency.
Liberal backbench MPs are reportedly seeking a solution that allows the family to return to the mainland.
Over the years, the family have attracted supporters from across the political spectrum including Labor senator Kristina Keneally, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce and former radio presenter Alan Joyce.
Federal government not moving on visas
ABC News: David Sciasci
)In 2019, Prime Minister Scott Morrison categorically ruled out ministerial intervention to stop the family's deportation.
As the former immigration minister who formed Australia's "stop the boats" policy, Mr Morrison has maintained a hardline approach to asylum seekers.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews this week said the family were not being considered for resettlement in New Zealand or the United States, despite senior government ministers previously raising the option.
Michael McCormack, who was this week Acting Prime Minister while Mr Morrison was overseas, said the matter was still under consideration by the government and a decision could be made and announced shortly.
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2021-06-11 20:14:17Z
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