Suffering on Nauru
Dear Prime Minister,
In the four letters of reply I have received from 'JC' of ABF Ministerial Correspondence Section Support Group he/she writes that 'all transferees receive clinically indicated health care broadly consistent with Australian public standards' . This is a lie.
Dr Paddy McLisky said in The Guardian today that
“the Australian immigration department had deliberately created a cumbersome, complex, and bureaucratic process for medical transfers, that appeared as though it was designed to fail.”
There are nearly 50 refugees and asylum seekers held on Nauru - including at least three women seeking to terminate their pregnancies - who are refused, or not considered for overseas medical treatment. This is in defiance of doctors' recommendations.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has designed a system to block all medical transfers while presenting a pretence of medical care. As Greg Lake, former Detention Centre Director, Nauru, said last year 'Our system depends on making detention worse than the place people are fleeing from. Worse than Syria under ISIS. It depends on taking away people's hope and dignity.'
As a matter of government policy and of Australia's reputation and standing, I ask you to immediately end the torture and indefinite detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru and bring them all to safety and freedom now.