Last minute legal action failed to prevent the Immigration department from removing an Iranian family group from Darwin to Nauru.
The family group of four (including their five year old son) was brought to Darwin from Nauru in early May, when the woman was three months pregnant seeking to terminate her pregnancy.
However in the days after their arrival, the family changed their mind about the termination and decided to have the baby.
Then yesterday (Thursday, 5 June), after one month in Australia, the immigration department told the family that they would be sent back to Nauru.
The family has been on Nauru for nine months.
The family is at least the fourth family group that has been brought from Nauru to seek termination of a pregnancy. Two families went ahead with the termination, while one other couple also decided to go ahead with the pregnancy after being brought to Australia.
An application for an injunction to prevent the removal of the woman and her family failed in the Federal Circuit Court in Darwin Friday afternoon, 6 June. The family was scheduled for removal at 1.00am Saturday 7 June.
The family is being removed to Nauru even though it is present government policy for pregnant women to be brought to Australia to give birth. This means that the family will likely be on Nauru for only three or four months before they will be brought back to Australia.
“The Minister is playing shocking games with the lives of the woman and her family,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, “Their removal is a cruel, expensive and pointless exercise. The Minister has sent the family back to a place that cannot adequately care for pregnant women.
“One of the adults in the family group already has severe mental health problems and has attempted suicide on Nauru. Yet being returned to Nauru can only magnify their anxiety, with greater risks to the mental and physical health for all involved.
“The desperate circumstances on Nauru are driving couples to consider abortion rather than have a child in a situation where there is such a precarious existence and no secure future. It is a tragic and complete indictment of offshore processing and a ruthless government that couples are being put in such an impossible situation.
“The removal of this family is the action of a Minister whose judgement is completely compromised. The government’s ‘no advantage’ policy for asylum seekers has over-ridden any element of compassion or common sense.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
