An Australian court ruling paving the way for the deportation of 267 asylum seekers to an offshore immigration camp drew criticism from the UN and sparked protests yesterday, while church leaders publicly offered them sanctuary.
On Wednesday, the High Court rejected a legal test case that challenged Australia’s right to deport detained asylum seekers to the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, about 3,000km northeast of Australia.
The asylum seekers who were brought from Nauru to Australia for medical treatment, including up to 80 children, are now at risk of being returned to the detention center that houses about 500 people. The center has been widely criticized for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse.
Photo: Reuters
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in an e-mailed statement that Australia could contravene its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by sending back the group, which includes more than 12 women and at least one child who have alleged sexual assault or harassment while in Nauru.
The group also includes 37 children born in Australia.
Under Australia’s immigration policy, asylum seekers attempting to reach the country by boat are intercepted and sent to camps on Nauru or on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton reiterated in a statement that asylum seekers arriving by boat would either be intercepted and turned back or “sent to another country for processing.”
However, in an interview yesterday on Australian Broadcasting Corp Radio, he appeared to open the door to at least some of those affected remaining in Australia.
“If there are exceptional circumstances in the individual cases, then we’re happy to look at that — and that’s always been the case,” he said.
Hundreds of Australians yesterday protested outside the Sydney offices of the Department of Immigration, with more rallies planned in cities across the country.
“It’s a completely dreadful and immoral thing that we are sending kids back there. It makes me ashamed of my government and ashamed of Australia,” Sara Lubowitz, 52, said.
Several churches have offered sanctuary to the asylum seekers.
The Anglican Dean of Brisbane, Peter Catt, declared the city’s cathedral a sanctuary for those who have suffered trauma and risk abuse if they are returned to Nauru.
Catt told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that the concept of sanctuary was not tested under law, “but my hunch is that if the authorities chose to enter the church and take people away, it would probably be a legal action.”
“So this is really a moral stand and it wouldn’t be a good look, I don’t think, for someone to enter a church and to drag people away,” he said.
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