After two years on Christmas Island, the Murugappan family is finally preparing to return to the mainland, to leave the wire fences, demountable buildings, and 24-hour police guard of immigration detention behind.
Tamil asylum seekers Priya and Nadesalingam Murugappan and their young Australian-born daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, have been detained on the remote Indian Ocean outpost since 2019, while they've waged an intricate legal battle to remain in Australia — the country they've called home for close to a decade.
But their return to the Australian community is not the victory they or their advocates had hoped for.
"I've made a compassionate decision..."
On Tuesday, federal Immigration Minister Alex Hawke granted approval for the family to live in Perth under a community detention arrangement, after the youngest of the two children was medically evacuated there with a life-threatening blood infection.
Four-year-old Tharnicaa has spent the past week laying in Perth's Children's Hospital with sepsis coursing through her blood, a condition that doctors suspect may have been caused by untreated pneumonia.
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"The family will now reside in suburban Perth through a community detention placement, close to schools and support services, while the youngest child receives medical treatment from the nearby Perth Children’s Hospital and as the family pursues ongoing legal matters," the Minister said in a statement.
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