In the early hours of March 5, 2018, officers from the Australian Border Force entered the home of married couple Priya and Nadesalingam 'Nades' in the central Queensland town of Biloela.
The pair were given just ten minutes to pack their belongings, before they and their young Australian-born daughters, Kopika and Tharnicaa, were bundled out into the dawn and onto immigration detention.
For the next four years, the family were held captive, caught up in a lengthy, intricate battle to stay in the country they've called home for the better part of a decade.
Now, they've been granted permanent residency following their long-awaited return to Biloela in June.
On Friday, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles announced the family had been granted permanent visas, after intervening in the case and exercising his special ministerial powers.
"This government made a commitment before the election that, if elected, we would allow the family to return to Biloela and resolve the family’s immigration status. Today, the Government has delivered on that promise," Giles said in a statement.
"I extend my best wishes to the Nadesalingam family."
Four years after being snatched from their homes, this is the story of the Nadesalingam family, and what their lives look like in Biloela now.
Priya and Nades Murugappan speak about returning to Biloela on Australian Story. Post continues below.
Their story.
To Priya and Nades, Australia represented safety and freedom.
They are Tamils, an ethnic minority that were slaughtered in their tens of thousands during Sri Lanka's bloody civil war.
Speaking to Mamamia, the couple's friend and advocate, Angela Fredericks, said they had each survived horrors that most Australians would barely be able to comprehend.
"Priya's husband was burnt alive in front of her, and her father was abused by the military. Nades is covered in shrapnel from the war," the fellow Biloela resident said.
"For them to make it through, and to still have the most beautiful, kind hearts is extraordinary."
It’s estimated that 40,000 Tamils have been killed. But the number could be as high as 70,000. It's hard to know, given the government at the time wasn't really counting.
Since the conflict ended with a government victory in 2009, more than 800,000 Tamil people are believed to have scattered across Sri Lanka and the globe, driven from their homes, seeking a life free of violence and discrimination.
Among them was Priya, who sought asylum in Australia in 2012. One year later, a man named Nadesalingam 'Nades' sought refuge for the same reason. The couple met here in Australia and married. Nades secured a job in the Biloela meatworks and they had their beautiful daughters, now aged seven and five.
For more than three years, the couple lived in Biloela, a small community in Central Queensland. Then in March 2018, Priya's bridging visa expired and authorities swooped in.
Listen to The Quicky on why the government won't let the Biloela family stay. Post continues after audio.
She says she was in communication with a caseworker from the Department of Home Affairs, according to The Guardian. Priya was expecting a new visa to arrive. It never came though.
Instead, while Nades was getting ready for work and Priya was preparing a bottle for her seven-month-old baby, their home was stormed by police. Their sleeping children were taken from their beds, while Priya and Nades were given just ten minutes to collect whatever they needed. They would never be coming back. They were taken into detention, before being transported to Christmas Island.
The family had been fighting ever since, arguing that they would face persecution if forced to return to their country of birth.
Through media and social media attention, they attracted a groundswell of public support, as well as high-profile advocates in the likes of now-Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and even Alan Jones and Bob Katter.
But at the time, the then-Liberal Government and Immigration Minister (who had the power to intervene) remained unswayed.
The family of four were for a long time the only occupants of the Christmas Island Detention Centre, where they were held since a last-minute court injunction sensationally grounded their Sri Lanka-bound deportation flight in Darwin in August 2019. The facility, which once housed thousands of asylum seekers at the height of Australia's offshore detention program, was officially closed in 2019.
While the family remained there, more than 100 staff were employed to guard and cater for them at a cost of tens of millions of dollars, according to The Guardian.
Angela Fredericks visited the family there twice and spoke to them over the phone weekly.
Speaking to Mamamia, she explained they were housed in two demountable buildings; one with a small kitchen and lounge room, and another with their bedrooms. So the girls are not left alone, they choose to sleep together in one. The parents passed their days cooking, exercising and entertaining their girls.
But as time wore on, and each stage of their case dragged, Angela noticed Priya's emotional state deteriorated.
"She's getting really low," Angela said at the time. "The big [struggle] for her is watching her kids upset."
The family garnered a small win when they were transported to community detention in Perth as opposed to Christmas Island. But it came under terrible circumstances, with the family placed in Perth following the medical evacuation of their youngest daughter Tharnicaa from Christmas Island in June 2021 due to a blood infection. She has now made a full recovery.
The family then had a legal win in 2021 when the Federal Circuit Court found the federal government's decision to prevent three members of the family from applying for further bridging visas was "procedurally unfair".
Parents Priya and Nades along with daughter Kopika were granted 12-month bridging visas by then-Immigration Minister Alex Hawke following a long ordeal.
However, the family remained in Perth as Tharnicaa was the only member of the family without a bridging visa.
In May this year, Kopika spent her seventh birthday in community detention.
Weeks later, Treasurer and Acting Home Affairs Minister Jim Chalmers, announced the family would be granted bridging visas, after Labor won the federal election.
In June, they finally left community detention in Perth and made their long-awaited return to their home of Biloela.
Touching down in Queensland, the family shared a hug on the tarmac, while Kopika and Tharnicaa waved to the awaiting crowd who clapped and cheered with signs and streamers.
Their lives now.
For the past two months, Nadesalingam family have been happily living their lives back in Biloela.
Kopika and Tharnicaa have been able to attend school like any other Aussie kids their age.
The family can now permanently call Australia home after receiving their visas last week.
"At last we feel peace," Priya said in a statement on Friday. "I am so grateful to minister Giles for granting us this permanency.
"Now I know my daughters will get to grow up safely in Australia. Now my husband and I can live without fear. This is a very happy day for our family and for all the people of Biloela and Australia who have supported us."
This article was originally published in July 2020, and updated on August 8, 2022.
Feature Image: Facebook/Bring Priya, Nades and their girls home to Biloela.
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