A five-year-old boy allegedly raped by fellow refugees on Nauru could be sent back to live among his attackers after a failed High Court challenge.
The boy was send to Australia for medical treatment after reports he had been repeatedly raped by refugees at the offshore detention centre.
 |
| dr Karen Zwi KLIK |
This morning a challenge to Australia's immigration policy was dismissed meaning 267 people, including 91 children brought to Australia for medical treatment may be sent back to Nauru.
The full bench of the High Court handed down its ruling after considering the case of a pregnant Bangladeshi asylum seeker who was brought to Australia from Nauru for treatment of serious health complications. She faced the prospect of being returned to the Pacific island with her one-year-old child.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was not available for comment following the ruling but told TODAY host Karl Stefanovic earlier this morning the Australian government will review the boy's case "compassionately."
"We are not going to send kids into harm's way. If there is a refugee somewhere that has assaulted the child of this refugee family then nobody would tolerate that."
The minister was reluctant to speculate on what response the government would make if the High Court challenge was successful.
The ABC has aired concerns by paediatrician Karen Zwi who says the boy suffered serious mental health problems after the alleged sexual assault and began to self-harm.
Dr Zwi said the child's greatest fear was returning to Nauru.
"That is this huge cloud hanging over him that he will be returned to an absolutely traumatic and devastating environment for him," she said.
Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said when Labor set up the offshore processing system, it did not envisage thousands of people languishing there indefinitely.
"We've heard nothing from Mr Turnbull, nothing from Mr Dutton that in any way offers any prospect to any of those people that this indefinite detention is going to be brought to an end," he told ABC radio.
"This present situation can't be allowed to continue."
Europol:
minstens 10.000 vluchtelingenkinderen vermist
De organisatie vreest dat veel minderjarige asielzoekers in handen zijn gevallen van criminelen.
Australia throws out asylum seeker challenge
Australia's highest court has thrown out a challenge to the lawfulness of the country's offshore detention of asylum seekers.
The case was taken to the High Court by the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre on behalf of asylum seekers who had been transferred to Australia for medical treatment or to give birth.
It argued that offshore detention infringed constitutional limits on power, and that there was no law that gave the Australian government the power to facilitate offshore arrangements.
But in the court's decision announced by a full bench today, the High Court found that the federal government's conduct was authorised by both the law and the Australian constitution.
The judgement opens the way for Canberra to send more than 260 asylum seekers -- including babies who were born in Australia -- back to their camps in either Nauru or Papua New Guinea.
Court decision immoral
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in Australia says the court decision is immoral.
An ARSC spokesperson, Pamela Curr, said those being sent back to Nauru face an uncertain future, in a centre where sexual and physical abuse happens and where there is limited access to medical treatment.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten