Morrison: Offshore Camp Can Handle A Profoundly Disabled Child

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By Nick Olle November 15, 2013

Aprofoundly disabled four-year-old Tamil asylum seeker in a Brisbane detention facility will be transferred offshore along with her father, probably to Nauru, The Global Mail has learned. The family say they ha e been told by immigration officials that they will be sent offshore for processing, according to sources. The Minister for !mmigration and Border "rotection, #cott Morrison, has reiterated that there would be $no e%ceptions& to the offshore processing of asylum seekers who arri ed in Australia by boat after 'uly (), *+(,. The minister said- $!t doesn.t matter whether you.re a child, it doesn.t matter whether you.re pregnant, it doesn.t matter whether you.re a woman, it doesn.t matter if you.re an unaccompanied minor, it doesn.t matter if you. e got a health condition / if you are fit enough to get on a boat, then you can e%pect you.re fit enough to end up in offshore processing.& Asked if he was satisfied that the Nauru detention facility was suitable for disabled children, the minister added- $0here there are any particular medical issues on any particular case, then appropriate care is pro ided for those conditions.& !. e been in facilities where there ha e been disabled people, and that was occurring under the pre ious go ernment, particularly on Manus !sland, and it continues to occur now so appropriate care and facilities are put in place,& Morrison said. 1owe er, Amnesty has described conditions at Nauru as deplorable and a woman with more than 2+ years of nursing e%perience likened the centre, where she worked for three weeks, to a concentration camp.

DANIEL KIRKWOOD/THE GLOBAL MAIL

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison at the November 15 Operation Sovereign Bor ers brie!ing" The Tamil girl was in3ured in utero by shrapnel following a bomb blast in her nati e #ri 4anka, according to sources who know her and describe her as $hea ily disabled&5 she is confined to a chair and that she $can.t walk, can.t talk&. A source who regularly isits the girl and her father at the Brisbane !mmigration Transit Accommodation 6B!TA7 facility, e%plains that the pair were separated from the girl.s mother and two siblings as the family attempted to board a boat to Australia. The girl was $strapped to her father&. The army intercepted the mother and she was left behind with two little children,& the source says, adding that the mother was 3ailed in #ri 4anka after the incident but has since been released. #o he.s here with a hea ily disabled child. #he.s bright-eyed and beautiful. #he turns

around and looks e erywhere. The other day ! thought !.d 3ust hold her hand for a bit and she held my fingers with a really strong grip and ! was able to pull her little chair with me 3ust holding her fingers. #he thought that was wonderful.& Another asylum seeker now in B!TA was caught in the same bomb blast in #ri 4anka5 her name is #uthakaran. $#he was also pregnant at the time. 1er husband was killed in the bombing, and she is now confined to a wheelchair,& the source says. The concern is 8immigration authorities9 are going to use the story of 8the disabled child9 and the woman in a wheelchair to say they.re 3ust looking for medical assistance and they.re really not refugees.& :efugee acti ists understand that #uthakaran is likely to be deported back to #ri 4anka. 1uman rights lawyer and refugee ad ocate 'ulian Burnside, who isited Nauru in 'une this year, says he seriously doubts that medical facilities in Nauru are sufficient to deal with a seriously disabled child. !t is not set up to deal with any significant health problems,& he says. $The health system there is not really effecti e e en for their own people, as you know it is a tiny country with a tiny population and it.s bankrupt.& !t is contrary to ordinary instinct that shifting a child to Nauru with one parent is going to be in the child.s best interests.&