The vigil for baby Asha outside the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane continues, as the hospital joined a growing group of institutions offering sanctuary to refugee families.
In a statement on February 12, a Lady Cilento Children's Hospital spokesperson said: “Children's Health Queensland can confirm that a 12-month-old girl from the Nauru Detention Centre is currently receiving care at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital.
“As is the case with every child who presents at the hospital, this patient will only be discharged once a suitable home environment is identified.
“All decisions relating to a patient's treatment and discharge are made by qualified clinical staff, based on a thorough assessment of the individual patient's clinical condition and circumstances, and with the goal of delivering the best outcome.”
Baby Asha, as she is known, was learning to walk when she grabbed a cup of boiling liquid and suffered burns that required medical attention. Her parents, minority Christians from Nepal, originally arrived in Australia in October 2013 and Asha was born in Darwin.
The doctors' decision not to release her sparked an overnight vigil outside the hospital on February 12 that grew to a large rally the next day, in which protesters called on the federal government to let Asha and her family remain in Australia.
The protesters want all 267 asylum seekers to be allowed to stay — summed up in the #LetThemStay movement.
Vigil organisers said the family was at risk of being deported immediately because they were not among the families involved in the High Court case, which recently upheld the federal government's policy to detain refugees on Nauru.
Rallies continuing
The vigil is ongoing, with some protesters sleeping overnight to maintain a constant presence at the site between rolling rallies attracting hundreds of people. Hospital staff reported that the hospital's switchboard has been “lit up” by calls of support.
The latest poll published by Essential revealed Australians are evenly split on the subject.
According to the poll of 1015 people, 40% said they thought babies born in Australia should remain in the country, while 39% said they should be sent to Nauru and 21% did not know. Young people and Greens voters were more likely to want the infants kept in Australia while older Coalition voters wanted them sent to Nauru.
Natasha Blucher, from the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network and a community advocate for the family said: “This mother is terrified and the family's situation is extremely tenuous.
“I was in the difficult position of having to explain to the mother on the phone that there is currently nothing preventing the Department or Serco from taking her from the hospital and placing her on a plane to Nauru.
“I was present on the phone for a discussion in which hospital staff explained to her that no steps are being taken to discharge her baby from the hospital because they believe she does not have a safe home to go to, but the fact remains that they would be unable to prevent her removal if the Department sought to do that by force.
“All this mother wants is for her baby to be safe, and unfortunately at the moment nobody can promise her that.
“I was trying to reassure the mother that her lawyers and others are doing everything they can to keep her family safe, but she said to me that she feels the government is very scary, and it can do anything it wants.
“She said that after the way the family has been treated in the past, every time the door opens in their room, her heart starts racing and she becomes terrified.”
Refugee Action Coalition Queensland spokesperson Mark Gillespie told the vigil that the child's mother was living in the hospital while her father was staying at a Brisbane detention centre and visiting daily. He told the rally about his meeting with Asha's father: “I met a very traumatised man,” he said. “His mental health is shot by what this government has put these people through.
“The father told me about insects that come into the tent and make the baby itch and she's got bites all over her. It's no place for a baby.”
To cheers from the crowd, Doctors for Refugees founder Dr Richard Kidd praised the courageous stance of the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital doctors who were standing by their Hippocratic Oath to look after their patients' well being.
“In this case, that means not releasing babies and children in environments where we know they will be harmed,” he said. “There is overwhelming evidence ... of the terrible harm that is done to babies and children — and adults — in detention, particularly offshore.”
But jeers and chants of “Shame Labor Shame” and “Let Them Stay” drowned out local Labor MP Terri Butler as she tried to criticise Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the situation. Many in the crowd heckled with comments lambasting Labor's rotten track record on refugees and asylum-seekers.
On February 13, deputy premier Jackie Trad told the protesters that the state government had written to the federal government offering to house and care for Asha and her parents. On February 14, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and health minister Cameron Dick announced that they supported the doctors and urged Turnbull to show compassion.
"My government stands absolutely ready to look after the people who are due to be sent back to Nauru — we stand ready, willing and able to do that," Palaszczuk said. "I call on the prime minister to show some humanity."
Health workers have said public and state government support for the Lady Cilento doctors was significant when they were “putting their career on the line”. They said support from the state health minister — effectively their direct employer — was “particularly reassuring”.
On Valentine's Day, protesters called for Turnbull and immigration minister Peter Dutton to show Asha some love and let her family stay in the country.
"Roses are red, violets are blue, people with hearts, don't send babes to Nauru," a crowd of more than 100, some holding heart-shaped signs, chanted outside the hospital.
Challenges to government rhetoric
The federal government is facing an overwhelming challenge to its thesis that “saving lives at sea” justifies abuse and indefinite imprisonment of men, women and children.
The Lancet, one of the world's leading medical journals, condemned Australia's immigration detention policies in its February issue. It described the policies as “scandalously objectionable” and said it needed to develop a humane response, “starting with an end to the detention of children and their families”.
While Dutton has refused to comment on the case, Turnbull has weighed in, saying while there was a need for compassion he was determined to maintain a hard line policy towards asylum-seeker arrivals because the “ruthless” people smugglers should not be given “one inch of encouragement”.
Australia's medical fraternity continues to protest against immigration detention policies, in defiance of the Border Force Act, which carries a potential two-year jail term for “entrusted persons” who speak out about conditions in detention.
Australasia Psychiatry's February issue contains no less than five papers dedicated to the mental health impacts of immigration detention.
The author of one of the articles, Dr Robert Adler, a psychiatrist and former refugee himself who worked on Nauru, wrote that having seen the despair and helplessness of asylum seekers on Nauru, he felt compelled to speak out.
“I am appalled by the policies of both major political parties which support mandatory detention and offshore processing. They appear to think it is acceptable to pay, or bribe, some of the poorest countries in our region to take people we do not want, to 'Stop the boats'.
“I accept that we need to do what we can to dissuade people from getting on leaky, dangerous boats but I am cynical enough to believe that 'offshore processing' is at least in part a case of out of sight and out of mind.”
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