Salwa Abas stands out in the busy school drop-off: she is the only child escorted by a guard. Classmates tease the five-year-old for living in a "jail" and when she returns home, each pocket of her bag is searched. 
Salwa and her sister Yasmin, 3, are Australian citizens. But they have been living with their mother behind locked gates at Sydney's Villawood detention centre for almost a year, after the federal government cancelled their mother's visa. In doing so, the government acknowledged the decision was not in the children's best interests. Their mother Zahra, who is pregnant with her third child, has begged Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to intervene.
"They were happy Australian kids, why [did the government] do this to them, they don't deserve to be here," she told Fairfax Media from inside the detention centre.
"[My children] are really upset inside and they are asking me 'What are we doing for Christmas, are we getting out? Why are we here'?" Ms Abas, originally from Iraq, arrived on a boat from Indonesia in 2009 with other family members. They were taken to Christmas Island then granted protection in Australia.
Her father, known as Captain Emad, arrived in Australia in 2010. He fled two years later, after ABC's Four Corners program alleged he was running a people-smuggling racket from Canberra.
The case cast a spotlight on his family, and the Department of Immigration determined Ms Abas, who was 19 when arriving in Australia, had falsified information on her visa application.
Ms Abas said this week her father was "abusive, controlling and angry" and told the family to lie to immigration officials about their names and background.
"He told us to tell un-genuine information and I did, but my intention wasn't anything bad ..."
Under the former Labor government, the department said while Ms Abas had breached her obligations under migration law, her visa would not be cancelled.
But in   December last year when the Coalition was in office, then immigration minister Scott Morrison intervened to cancel Ms Abas' visa.
Ms Abas' husband visits the family in detention and she is 21 weeks pregnant. She is also severely depressed and fears for the future of her unborn baby and young daughters.
Mr Dutton and the Department of Immigration refused to answer questions on Ms Abas, or explain why she was the only family member being detained. A spokeswoman for Mr Dutton said his department was "managing" the case.