Asylum-seeker kids to leave Nauru by end of the year under Scott Morrison plan
PETER Dutton has issued a stern message about refugees after the government revealed it will relocate children of asylum seekers to Australia from Nauru.
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THE Morrison government is planning to have all children of asylum seekers brought to Australia from Nauru by the end of the year.
Former attorney-general George Brandis confirmed the government would relocate every child. It is understood there are 38 children of asylum seekers remaining on the island.
“There are hardly any children on Nauru and in New Guinea and we expect that by the end of this year there will be none,” Mr Brandis told LBC radio.
But people who pose a security risk could stay in detention while their partners and children are allowed into the Australian community, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has said.
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“I’ve had cases before where I’ve made decisions that the father will stay in custody and the child and the mother will go out into the community,” Mr Dutton told 2GB radio.
Of the children removed from the Pacific nation during the past few days, 13 have been hospitalised in capital cities across Australia.
Mr Dutton said the government had emptied the Manus Island detention centre and moved all children out of detention.
“We’ve done it there and we’re in the process of doing it in Nauru but we’re doing it in a way that’s not going to restart boats,” he said.
Former Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs said it would take time for the children and their families to be healthy.
“These children are, on all the medical evidence, deeply traumatised and damaged,” Ms Triggs told ABC radio.
Ms Triggs infuriated the government when she investigated conditions for children in immigration detention in 2014, publishing a 300-page report saying they should not be detained.
A total of 46 infants have been born to asylum seekers since Nauru was reopened for processing in 2012.
In recent years, 244 minors have reportedly been taken to Australia from offshore detention centres.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the government has been “quietly” removing children from the island nation.
“Children have been transferred off Nauru. That’s been happening for some time,” he told 2GB.
“I haven’t been showboating about it.”
A poll in The Sunday Telegraph showed almost 80 per cent of Australians supported taking the children off Nauru.
An alarming report by The Refugee Council of Australia and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre found that refugee children on Nauru were more traumatised then children in war zones.
“Children as young as seven and 12 are experiencing repeated incidents of suicide attempts, dousing themselves in petrol, and becoming catatonic,” the report said.
To read more go to The Australian