Yahoo – AFP,
Glenda Kwek, 14 February 2016
An
Australian hospital has refused to return an asylum-seeker baby to detention in
Nauru, as momentum built across the country on Sunday against offshore Pacific
camps for processing refugees.
Under the
government's tough immigration policy, asylum-seekers who try to reach
Australia by boat are sent to detention camps in the Pacific island nations of
Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
They are
blocked from being resettled in Australia even if found to be refugees.
The
hospital's move came as state governments, churches and activists stepped up
their efforts to stop the return of some 267 refugees to Nauru following a High
Court ruling.
On Sunday,
campaigners from ActionAid, Amnesty International, GetUp! and Greenpeace
unfurled a #LetThemStay banner on Sydney's iconic harbour calling for the
asylum-seekers, who are set to be deported after being brought to Australia for
medical treatment, to be allowed to stay.
The
#LetThemStay campaign, which has been trending on Twitter, has also seen
hundreds of people maintain a vigil -- now in its third day -- outside the
Brisbane hospital where the baby is being cared for.
The
12-month-old infant, who is called Asha and the child of Nepalese
asylum-seekers, was brought to the eastern city of Brisbane for treatment in
late January after being scalded with hot water at the remote Nauru facility.
Following
the High Court's ruling earlier this month in favour of the government's
policies, Asha and 36 other babies born in Australia are among the
asylum-seekers facing removal.
But a
spokesman for Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children's Hospital said Asha "will
only be discharged once a suitable home environment is identified".
Growing
political, community support
Their
stance was supported by Queensland state's Health Minister Cameron Dick, who
said in a statement Sunday that he "strongly support(s) doctors in our
hospitals to make the right clinical decisions".
"Doctors
must expect to advocate for their patients," Doctors For Refugees
co-founder Richard Kidd, who has joined the vigil outside the hospital, told
AFP.
"We
have... overwhelming evidence over many years now that detention does terrible
harm to babies and children, particularly their mental health but also physical
health."
Australian
church leaders in early February vowed to defy the federal government, offering
sanctuary to the asylum-seekers.
Several
state government premiers have said they would help settle in their communities
those facing deportation if they were allowed to stay.
There have
also been numerous community-led protests. Thirty-seven cots -- one for each of
the Australia-born babies -- were set up on Sydney's Bondi Beach, while two
campaigners abseiled from a Melbourne bridge with a "Let Them Stay"
banner.
"I
think the case of the 267 people has just really spoken to the hearts of the
people across Australia," GetUp! organiser Sally Rugg told AFP.
"It's
people from all walks of life. We are seeing churches and hospitals and
teachers and premiers, it's a whole movement."
Canberra
has long defended its policy, saying it has prevented the deaths of
asylum-seekers at sea and secured its borders.
But rights
groups have criticised the measures and detention conditions, while the
government-funded Human Rights Commission has found that children who lived in
the Nauru centre had high levels of mental illness.
"This
offshore detention policy is being operated by the Australian government in
secrecy and there's a severe lack of transparency and that's obviously not how
people of Australia want their taxpayers' money being spent," Amnesty's
Ming Yu Hah told AFP.
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Australia doctors demand children be freed from #immigration detention http://t.co/oSHkZyvn5V pic.twitter.com/s9yLBKHA2Z— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 12, 2015
Related Articles:
Australia doctors demand children be freed from immigration detention
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EU states agree relocation of 120,000 refugees 'by large majority'
UN Security Council approves EU anti-trafficking mission
"The New Human P1" - Sep 19-20, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)
"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)
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