SYDNEY: Australia said Monday an asylum-seeker baby brought from a Pacific detention camp for hospital treatment is expected to be returned to the camp as a deterrent to people-smugglers, despite protests from doctors and others.
Under Canberra’s tough immigration policy, asylum-seekers attempting to arrive in Australia by boat are sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, where they are held while their refugee applications are processed.
They are blocked from resettlement in Australia even if found to be refugees.
The case of one-year-old Asha, the daughter of Nepalese asylum-seekers who was brought to Brisbane suffering burns last month, prompted a stand-off with doctors and a week of rallies outside the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.
Medical staff had refused to release her until a suitable home environment had been identified.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said she had now been moved to community detention, where asylum-seekers waiting for their refugee applications to be processed live within the community. They are usually allowed to move around freely.
“She’s in community detention and obviously support will be provided to the family,” Dutton told the Nine Network. But he added that the government would not back down on its policy of returning her to offshore detention once medical and legal issues had been settled.
Refugee advocates claimed she was secretly moved from the hospital at 4am to an undisclosed location and the family’s lawyer Daniel Webb, from the Human Rights Law Center, said they were initially unable to speak to the family.