A group of ten refugees and people seeking asylum are being transferred from Nauru to Australia, this morning, Friday 4 September. The RAAF plane is expected to land in Darwin around 11.00 am Central Australia time, where the group will be hotel-quarantined.
It is understood that some of the people on the flight are among those who had been previously approved for transfer to Australia under the Medivac Bill that was repealed by the Morrison government in December 2019.
“The government ignored medical advice and has shamefully denied medical treatment to people for another ten months since the repeal of Medivac,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“Today’s transfer is yet another indication that the Minister cannot be trusted to exercise his duty of care for refugees. Dutton also claimed that refuges were rorting the Medivac bill, but truth has always been the casualty in Dutton’s propaganda war against refugees.”
Up to 30 others waiting on Nauru have been approached in recent days to accept transfer to Australia for medical treatment. But the fact that up to half the people transferred from Manus and Nauru prior to the repeal of the Medivac Bill being repealed are still waiting for medical treatment in Australia, is well known on Nauru.
Some Nauruan refugees declined to be transferred on today’s flight because of their fear of being held in closed hotels or detention centres without treatment in Australia. The concern that the Australian government was trying to remove phones from people in detention has added to their fears.
“We are extremely concerned that the refugees being transferred today will also be deprived of medical treatment and held indefinitely in detention,” said Rintoul, “These refugees need medical treatment and they need freedom, and permanent protection.”
Ironically, the transfer from Nauru comes on the last day of the Brisbane Coronial inquest into the mental health treatment of Iranian refugee, Omid Masoumali, who died in Brisbane after self-immolating on Nauru in 2016. The coronial inquiry has already revealed the shocking state of medical facilities on Nauru at the time.
“The transfer also puts the lie to repeated recent claims by acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge that Medevac transfers being held in Australia could be sent back to Nauru or Papua New Guinea,” Rintoul added, “The hotel-prisons and detention centres must be closed.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
