The Biloela Family Are Being Moved To Perth, But They’re Still Not Allowed Home
Advocates for the Biloela family will keep fighting for their return home after their move to community detention was announced.
The Biloela family will be moving into community detention in Perth after two years in detention on Christmas Island but their advocates have resolved to keep fighting for their return home.
Immigration minister Alex Hawke announced today that the government is going to move the Marugappan family to live in community detention in Perth.
Statement on the Sri Lankan family in held detention. pic.twitter.com/2pH7USZJQV
— Alex Hawke MP (@AlexHawkeMP) June 14, 2021
What Will Happen To The Family Now?
The announcement follows a week of public outrage over the treatment of the Marugappans after their youngest daughter, Tharnicaa, was evacuated from Christmas Island after experiencing a high fever for nearly two weeks that later required treatment for a blood infection.
Tharnicaa continues to be treated in Perth Children’s Hospital and the family will be reunited shortly after spending over a week apart.
Keeping people without visas in community detention until they can be deported / legal challenges are finalised is the most “progressive” policy position represented in Parliament btw (via the Greens). Just in case you wanted a sense of how deeply cooked and ingrained this is.
— Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) June 14, 2021
Hawke announced that by allowing the family to live in community detention in Perth, he was “balancing the government’s ongoing commitment to strong border protection policies with appropriate compassion in circumstances involving children held in detention.”
The family are going to reside in suburban Perth through a community detention placement but the minister asserted that the decision does “not create a pathway to a visa”.
The Reaction To The Announcement Has Been Mixed.
Simone Cameron, Nades’ former English teacher in Biloela and a key organiser of the Home to Bilo campaign, told Junkee that she’s had a mixed reaction to the announcement.
“I think as a first step it’s really great to have the family about to be reunited…they’re a really tight-knit family and they’ve been missing each other desperately the past nine days,” she said.
“I think there are some positive things that will come from community detention compared to held detention because they will have some more freedoms but, as I understand, there are some very strict limits. It doesn’t appear that they would be free to go back to Biloela”.
Alex Hawke & Scott Morrison, couldnt have put more distance between the #BiloelaFamily and their supporter network in Biloela if they tried.
We cant let this "fix" stand.
We must all continue to push for our cruel & merciless government to send this family #HometoBilo #Auspol pic.twitter.com/BNzLs9zykC
— ? Sleeping Giants Oz ? (@slpng_giants_oz) June 14, 2021
Cameron also told Junkee that Priya has been relieved by the announcement but that community detention will still be extremely difficult for them.
“They can’t work when they’re in community detention and that is so important to self-sufficient people like Nades and Priya. Nades is absolutely desperate to get back into work and it will be a really crucial part of his recovery.”
Where Did This Story Start?
The Home to Bilo campaign was sparked by community members of the central Queensland town back in early 2018 when the family were first taken by Australia Border Force officials to an immigration detention centre in Melbourne.
Nades Murugappan arrived by boat in Australia in 2012 to seek asylum. He claimed that he was forced to join the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and faced persecution in Sri Lanka.
Priya Murugappan also arrived by boat in 2013 seeking asylum after claiming that she saw her then-fiance and other members of her village burned alive by the Sri Lankan army.
Both parents arrived without a visa and were considered “unlawful maritime arrivals”, but they were granted temporary bridging visas and the daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, were born in Australia.
Why Now?
The pressure on the government to release the family back into the Australian community has been increasing from both sides of the political spectrum since Tharnicaa’s hospitalisation.
Coalition MPs including Katie Allen, Trent Zimmerman and Ken O’Dowd joined the call for the family to be returned to the mainland after their lengthy Christmas Island detention.
Biloela family to be freed from Christmas Island imprisonment, but kept in community detention in Perth, indefinitely. Scott government still intent on using them as hostages to political fortune, just less visible ones.
— marquelawyers (@marquelawyers) June 14, 2021
However, Hawke’s statement today said that the government’s position on border protection has not changed and that anyone “who arrives in Australia illegally by boat will not be resettled permanently”.
Cameron said that the Home to Bilo campaign have spoken with the family and assured them that they will not be giving up on getting them home and they’re instead treating this stage as a stepping stone.
“We hope that the government will be amenable sometime soon to releasing them on a substantive visa so that they can return to Biloela, where they will be really well supported,” she said.