Three Murugappan relatives have temporarily granted Australian visas | Refugee Stories

Three-month visas will allow them to work and study in Western Australia but not return home to Biloela.

Australia has granted three members of the Murugappan family, who were detained for more than two years on the remote island of Christmas, three months’ visas to work and study in Western Australia, just two weeks after the last child was deported to the state.

Foreign Minister Alex Hawke said he had used his powers under Article 195A of the Migration Act to grant the couple so-called visas with the right to work and study.

“Under Section 195A the Minister may intervene to grant a person a visa if it is necessary in the public interest to do so,” he said in a statement. He did not specify which Murugappans were not granted visas.

Priya and Nadesalingam Murugappan, from Sri Lanka, of all nationalities, met and got married in Australia in 2014, after traveling privately in his home country by boat.

Both of their daughters – Kopika and Tharunicca – were born in Australia and the couple lived in the rural Queensland town of Biloela for four years before being arrested in March 2018 after the first Priya payment visa expired.

He first took them to Melbourne, then to Perth and then back to Melbourne before sending them to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean where the courts ruled on their cases and how their youngest son, Tharunicca.

At Bilo’s house, a campaign group set up by Biloela residents, family friends and supporters, said it was Tharunicca who had not been granted an entry visa.

“Today’s news is another big thing on the long trip home to Priya and her family, but there is still no way to get home to the Bill,” said Angela Fredericks, who heads the group. “While we welcome Priya, Nades and Kopika to get a visa, we wonder what the Ministry’s intention is to reject Tharni. The family should be together, and they should return to Biloela soon.”

The couple’s support has sparked a public outcry in the country for its insistence on survivors and refugees, sending thousands of people trying to reach Australia by sea to “sea trading” and telling them they will not be allowed to settle in the country.

There had been fears earlier this month when it was revealed that Tharunicca had to be transferred to Perth Hospital because she had a problem. a life-threatening condition he is thought to be the cause of chronic pneumonia.

Under duress, the government last week allowed a family of four to leave Christmas Island, and bury thembound in the area”In Perth, the capital of Western Australia and located 4,000 miles (2,485 miles) from Biloela.

Murugappan supporters say the couple could be at risk if they are sent to Sri Lanka, where under the leadership of Gotabaya Rajapaksa who oversees the Tamil Eelam Liberation Tigers (LTTE) terrorist attacks in which the United Nations estimates thousands have died. Rajapaksa, the then security minister, has also been charged with felony criminal mischief, including forced evasion and torture.

Last week more than a dozen Anglican bishops signed a petition asking the Australian government to release the couple and allow them to return home, noting that sending them to Sri Lanka was “an unsafe way”.

More than half a million people have signed a petition urging the minister to allow the couple to return to Biloela.

In October 2019, the United Nations Human Rights Committee requested that the couple be kept in prison and allowed to return home, giving the Australian government 30 days to do so.