Australia asylum baby to be returned to refugee camp
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The one-year-old baby who has been at the centre of an immigration row in Australia will be sent to an offshore refugee camp with her mother, the country’s immigration minister has said.
Doctors had refused to discharge the girl, who was being treated for serious burns, from Lady Cilento Hospital in Brisbane, citing the lack of a “suitable home environment” as their reason. But the girl, known as Asha, has been discharged into community detention within Brisbane with her mother, where she will stay until her treatment has been completed.
Peter Dutton, the Immigration Minister, has stressed that the girl’s stay in Australia will be only temporary, after which she will be transferred to Nauru, where asylum seekers are detained while their claims are processed.
“We are not going to allow people smugglers to get out a message that if you seek assistance in an Australian hospital, that somehow that is your formula to becoming an Australian citizen,” Mr Dutton said.