A Tamil asylum-seeker family from Biloela that has been detained on Christmas Island for the past two years will soon be reunited on the Australian mainland.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has decided to allow the Murugappan family to live in community detention in Perth.
But he is yet to make a decision on whether any of the family members can reapply for visas to stay in Australia.
"Today's decision does not create a pathway to a visa," Mr Hawke said on Tuesday.
"I will consider at a future date whether to lift the statutory bar presently preventing members of the family from reapplying for temporary protection, for which they have been previously rejected."
Mr Hawke claimed granting a permanent visa to the family would "absolutely" start a flood of people-smuggling boats.
There is no obvious pathway for the family to return to Biloela in Queensland, where they were living before being taken into immigration detention.
The family has been locked up since 2018 while their fight against deportation has gone through the courts.
Their plight re-entered the spotlight after four-year-old Tharnicaa was flown to the mainland for medical treatment.
Tharnicaa's mother Priya is with her at Perth Children's Hospital but her father Nades and six-year-old sister Kopika are still on Christmas Island.
A charter flight has been sent to collect them.
Mr Hawke said he was balancing the government's commitment to strong border protection with appropriate compassion for the children being held in detention.
"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," he said.
The decision sparked an extensive debate in the coalition party room, with members of the Morrison government deeply divided on the outcome.
Labor deputy leader Richard Marles described the family's release as common sense.
"The last place this family should be is on Christmas Island at the enormous expense to the Australian public," he said.
Mr Marles rejected the minister's assertion that allowing the family to stay would erode the country's border laws or restart the people-smuggling trade.
"None of that is being altered. That regime is still absolutely there."
Family friend Angela Fredericks said their release was more than three years in the making and she hoped community detention was only a temporary step.
"Community detention is no guarantee of safety and peace for this family," she said.
"Australia knows this family's home is in Biloela."
The head of the West Australian health department wrote to the Home Affairs department last week advising the Murugappan family be reunited in Perth.
It was not a plea for compassion but based on the clinical advice of Tharnicaa's treating doctors that she must be with family.
Her treatment for pneumonia and sepsis, a life-threatening blood infection, could take several months.
The family will be able to stay in community detention after Tharnicaa is released from hospital and remain in Perth until their legal case is resolved.
