22 February 2016•Update: 23 February 2016
MELBOURNE, Australia
Australia’s immigration minister insisted Monday that an asylum seeker baby who has been placed in community detention after a 10-day standoff between the government and doctors will end up in an offshore detention center once her family’s case is processed.
Medical staff at a hospital in Queensland state had refused to discharge the Australian-born infant – known as “Baby Asha” – until "a suitable home environment is identified".
She had returned to the country with her family after suffering accidental burns while on the Pacific island nation of Nauru, where Australia holds asylum seekers and where conditions have been described as appalling by rights advocates.
Over the weekend, doctors reached an agreement with the government that Asha – who has been the focus of 10-day protests against Australia’s strict policy – would be placed in community detention in the country rather than immediately deported to Nauru.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, however, reiterated Monday that the government’s policy required that the family be sent to Nauru upon completion of legal and medical issues.
“We are not going to allow people smugglers to get out a message that if you seek assistance in an Australian hospital, that somehow that is your formula to becoming an Australian citizen,” the Australian Associated Press quoted him saying.
“The high court found six to one in favour of the commonwealths position and that's the fair process to go through... we will make arrangements at the right time for people to go back to Nauru,” he told reporters in Canberra.
The high court ruling earlier this month resulted in 267 asylum seekers -- including 91 children, 37 of them babies born in Australia -- facing imminent deportation.
According to figures from Australia’s immigration department, a total of 1,459 people were held at the country’s facilities in Nauru and Manus Island in January.
Children account for around 160 of those being detained.
Dutton also announced Monday that the government had turned down New Zealand’s recent offer to possibly resettle 150 asylum seekers, reiterating the official stance that such a move would provide an opportunity to people smugglers.
News broadcaster ABC quoted Dutton as calling the 2013 deal between the countries on the issue “a failed proposal” under Australia’s then prime minister.
"The deal that was struck was a back-door option to come to Australia," he said. "It was a failed proposal under Julia Gillard and that is why it is not acceptable to us in the form that Julia Gillard brokered it."
Australia’s government has shown a preference for striking deals with more impoverished nations in its attempts to discourage people from seeking asylum on its shores.
In 2014, the Australian and Cambodian governments had signed a transfer deal worth AU$55 million (originally around $40 million) to resettle refugees held on Nauru, but only six people have taken up the offer, with one going back to Myanmar after just a few months.
