Australia yesterday said a baby girl facing repatriation to an offshore immigration detention camp would go to an onshore facility instead, easing tension that peaked in a blockade outside a hospital where she is a patient.
Doctors at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane had refused to release the one-year-old girl after completion of her treatment for serious burns, adding to pressure on the government over its tough asylum-seeker policy.
The number of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia is small in comparison with those arriving in Europe, but border security is a hot-button political issue in Australia, which is scheduled to hold a national election later in the year.
Photo: Reuters
Australian Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton said the infant — known only as Baby Asha — would shortly be released into community detention, which allows free movement, in Brisbane.
However, the family could still be returned to a camp on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru, about 3,000km northeast of Australia, if they are not deemed to be genuine refugees, Dutton said.
Asha was flown last month from the Nauru center, which houses more than 500 people, to Brisbane for hospital treatment.
The facility has been widely criticized for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse.
“The advice I’ve received is that the doctors from the hospital have said they would be happy for the baby to go out into community detention,” Dutton told reporters. “But at some point, if people have matters finalized in Australia, then they will be returning to Nauru — that’s exactly the same treatment that we’ve applied equally.”
Australia’s High Court this month rejected a legal test case that challenged the nation’s right to deport 267 refugee children and their families who had been brought to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment.
Hundreds of Australians held an overnight vigil at the hospital, blocking exits and stopping cars in a bid to halt Asha’s removal.
“Together we did it!” Asylum Seeker Resource Centre chief executive Kon Karapanagiotidis said on Twitter after Dutton’s announcement.
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