All asylum-seeker children to leave Nauru

The Morrison government plans to have all children of asylum-seekers on Nauru ­relocated to Australia by the end of the year.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP

The Morrison government plans to have all children of asylum-seekers still on Nauru ­relocated to Australia by the end of the year.

The Australian can reveal there are now only 40 children of ­asylum-seekers living on the ­island, and that 46 infants have been born to asylum-seekers sent to Nauru since the former Labor government reopened the pro­cess­ing centre there in 2012.

Some 244 minors have been relocated from offshore processing centres to Australia over the past several years. Official figures from the ­Department of Home Affairs ­reveal an average of almost eight children a year have been born on the island to people now found to be refugees and those yet awaiting a ­determination.

Refugee advocates have argued that the asylum-seeker children are in the grip of a “health crisis”. The department, however, reported that only 10 of the 244 minors now in Australia were in hospital.

Officials said the total number of children remaining on the ­island as of Monday was 40.

Those born on Nauru to ­“irregular maritime arrivals” make up about 15 per cent of the total population of children who have ­either been transferred to Aus­tralia or remain on the island.

The department said all 46 births were to asylum-seekers who had arrived after the memorandum of understanding with Nauru was signed in 2013 by the Gillard government.

The Australian understands that an unofficial timeline has been set to have the remaining children transferred to Australia before the end of the year. Scott Morrison has said the government was “quietly” going about resolving the issue of children on Nauru and the number had halved in the past nine weeks.

 

A transfer of children over the past few days included 13 who ­attended hospitals for medical treatment or assessment.

Five had been admitted to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide; three went to Lady Cil­ento Hospital in Brisbane; two were in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and another at Monash; and one was in a Perth hospital. Since Tuesday, at least three have been discharged.

There were also reports that several children had been transferred to Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney on Tuesday.

Health Department sources said a doctor at a Sydney hospital on Tuesday night had asked the parents of an Australian child ­already being treated in hospital whether they could take their child home as the ward was going to be needed for “children from Nauru”.

Royal North Shore Hospital did not deny the claims but said it was “regrettable” that the family had concerns about their treatment at the hospital. A spokesman said there had not been a capacity issue at the children’s ward but would not reveal how many children from Nauru were admitted.

The Department of Home ­Affairs’ records suggested there had been only one.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who has been overseeing the removal of children from Nauru, has warned against any weakening of Australia’s border-protection policies that would put children at risk of being killed at sea if people-smuggling ventures were encouraged to restart.

The Prime Minister said on Monday that the government had been “quietly” working to remove children from Nauru, ­noting the public concern. “We’ve been getting about this quietly, we haven’t been showboating about it … we’ve just been getting on with it in the ­appropriate way,” he said.

Mr Morrison said this morning he would not bow to pressure to soften his border policies now that he faced minority government and a House of Representatives crossbench, including Kerryn Phelps, who has advocated that children must be removed from Nauru due to a “health crisis.”

“Our government is the government that got people out of detention, not sending children to Nauru” he told 2GB.

“You don’t get children off Nauru by putting more children on Nauru by weak border protection.”

Liberal moderates have been mounting a case with the Prime Minister for the removal of the remaining children, saying they had noted increasing community concern. However, they have been told that public commentary does not help the children.

A poll in The Sunday Telegraph showed almost 80 per cent of Australians supported taking the children off Nauru.

Debate about welfare of children on Nauru was sparked two weeks ago when the government suggested it could accept New Zealand’s offer to take up to 150 refugees if Labor backed legislation to ban asylum-seekers in offshore detention ever travelling to Australia via a third country.

The legislation, introduced to parliament two years ago, was designed to remove any incentives for people-smuggling ventures to restart by closing a “backdoor”. Labor has refused to support the legislation and the Greens have not ruled it out.

The government is unable and unwilling to return children to Nauru if they have come to Australia for medical treatment, as legal representatives of the children’s families have filed injunctions to prevent their removal.

The Refugee Council of Australia and the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre published a report in September saying refugee children on Nauru were “broken” and “more traumatised” than those 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.

Additional reporting: Richard Ferguson