Baby Asha to remain in community detention in Australia

TODAY host Lisa Wilkinson fired up during her interview with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton this morning.

TODAY host Lisa Wilkinson has grilled Immigration Minister Peter Dutton over why Australia won’t send 150 asylum seekers to New Zealand.

Wilkinson was interviewing Mr Dutton in the wake of the government’s decision to allow baby Asha to stay in Australia when she raised the possibility of refugees being sent across the ditch rather than back to detention on Nauru.

The government announced yesterday that the asylum-seeker baby at the centre of an immigration storm won’t be sent to an offshore facility when she is released from a Brisbane hospital today.

Baby Asha’s fate had sparked a week of rallies outside Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital, after doctors refused to release her, fearful she would be returned to detention on Nauru immediately.

Wilkinson asked why they had to go back to Nauru at all when there was a possibility of at least some being resettled in New Zealand.

“There is 150 people you can help right now,” she told him.

But the Immigration Minister fired back that it wasn’t an option as the deal brokered under former PM Julia Gillard would simply allow people smugglers a “back door option into Australia”.

“What about the voices of 1200 who went to the bottom of the ocean?” he said referring to the number of lives lost at sea.

“I’m not going to let more women and children die at sea.”

He also reiterated that the decision to allow the baby into community detention would not guarantee that other asylum seekers seeking medical attention would be given the same option.

“That simply will not happen,” he said.

Just days ago, New Zealand confirmed its offer is still on the table to accept some asylum seekers from Australia’s offshore detention centres.

Baby Asha has been at the centre of an immigration storm.

A longstanding deal that was struck in 2013 between Mr Key and then prime minister Julia Gillard for NZ to accept 150 asylum seekers a year has never been taken up by Australia.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said while he appreciated the offer, the government had to turn it down in order to deny marketing opportunities to people smugglers.

The New Zealand question was also raised in an interview with Radio National with Mr Dutton affirming Australia would not take up New Zealand’s offer.

“The way in which the deal was struck meant people could come to Australia via a backdoor option; that’s why it’s to acceptable to us,” he said.

Doing so would simply hand control back to people smugglers, he said.

VICTORY DECLARED OVER BABY ASHA

Under Canberra’s harsh 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 indefinitely while their refugees applications are processed.

The one-year-old baby named Asha, the child of Nepalese asylum-seekers, was held on Nauru with her parents before being brought to the Australian mainland for medical treatment last month.

Asha was due to be sent back to the camp after a court ruling in favour of the government’s offshore immigration detention policy.

But the hospital caring for her refused to release the infant until a “suitable home environment is identified”.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton confirmed yesterday Asha and her parents would be sent to community detention from Brisbane’s Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.

“We are proposing that baby Asha will come from Lady Cilento and will go into community detention as have, as I say, 83 others who are living in the community who are in Australia for medical assistance,” Mr Dutton said.

Protesters outside Lady Cilento Children’s hospital to stop baby Asha being sent to Nauru. Picture: Darren England

Community detention is when asylum-seekers waiting for their refugee applications to be processed live within the community and are usually allowed to move around freely.

However they can still be moved or removed by the immigration department at any time.

Mr Dutton said the government’s decision was pre-planned and not a result of pressure from medical professionals and the public.

The hospital confirmed the decision and said the move would take place “within the next 24 hours”.

‘MASSIVE TURNAROUND’

Refugee advocates welcomed Mr Dutton’s announcement, hailing it as a victory for their campaign against the deportations to Nauru of Asha and 266 other asylum-seekers also in Australia for medical care.

“A week ago we had to file an urgent case in the highest court in the country to stop the government from secretively deporting this baby to Nauru,” the Human Rights Law Centre’s Daniel Webb said in a statement.

“Now the family is being released into the community. It’s a massive turnaround.”

Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Mr Dutton’s decision was “too slow and lacked empathy” as she renewed her offer to house asylum-seekers facing removal in the community.

Peter Dutton announcing Asha’s release from the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.

Mr Dutton said if the refugee claims of Asha and her parents were rejected, they would be sent back to their home country or to Nauru.

“If people are suggesting to you there has been a change in the policy or we are going to allow special treatment in baby Asha’s case, then that is not the case,” he added.

There have been numerous protests against the deportations under the #LetThemStay campaign, with Australian church leaders also vowing to defy the government’s immigration rules, offering sanctuary to the asylum-seekers.

Canberra has long defended its policy — under which asylum seekers are blocked from being resettled in Australia even if found to be refugees — saying it has prevented deaths at sea and secured its borders.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop confirmed the government was in negotiations with a range of southeast Asian nations to resettle refugees in third countries, following a Fairfax Media report of a renewed push.

Canberra has already struck an agreement with Cambodia to accept refugees in exchange for millions of dollars in aid, but only a handful of people have taken up the offer.

Originally published as Baby Asha to remain in community detention in Australia