The Refugee Action Coalition is calling for the heavily pregnant, 34 year-old, Kurdish asylum seeker, Hatami (see photo), to be urgently brought to Australia to give birth.
Hatami’s diabetic pregnancy means the welfare of herself and her baby is at serious risk. That risk has been dramatically increased because the baby is also in the breech position.
It has also been revealed that the Immigration and Border Force Department is making urgent attempts to find a neonatologist to go to Nauru (as early as today, Friday 6 November) and be prepared to stay a week.
Hatami’s husband Rashid, wrote to the IHMS and the Immigration Department and to detention managers Transfield on Nauru at least three times in September appealing for help for his wife, but his appeals were ignored. (Copies of letters available on request.)
“The deliberate delays by the Immigration Department have put the lives of baby and mother at risk,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition. “The risks in a diabetic pregnancy are well established. To delay proper treatment to the point where lives are at risk is medical negligence of the worst kind.
“Medical best-practice is a distant second to the ideologically driven policy agenda of the Immigration Department and the Minister, Peter Dutton. This is the second time in three weeks that Border Force policy has over-ridden medical advice.
“Abyan, the pregnant Somali refugee’s requests for medical attention were also ignored for weeks. Now Border Force is playing with the life of another woman.
“Hatami must be brought to Australia for the medical assistance she and her baby urgently need.”
Hatami, her husband Rashid, and their four year old son, have been on Nauru since 15 May, 2014. Like most other children in the Nauru detention centre, their son has been diagnosed with “passive” tuberculosis.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
