Pressure on Aus govt to allow asylum seekers to stay

Transcript

Pressure is mounting on the Australian government to allow asylum seekers who face imminent return to offshore detention on Nauru to stay in the country.

Australia's highest court on Wednesday threw out a challenge to the lawfulness of the country's offshore processing centre - opening the way for Canberra to move 267 asylum seekers who have been in Australia for medical attention back to Nauru.

Mary Baines reports.

The group of asylum seekers include 37 babies who were born in Australia, a five-year-old boy who was allegedly raped at the centre, about 50 other children and women who were sexually abused.

The asylum seekers' lawyer, Daniel Webb, who is from the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre, says the government still has discretionary power to let the asylum seekers stay.

DANIEL WEBB: The minister [for immigration and border protection] and the prime minister still have the power to do the decent thing and let these people stay. If the minister is unmoved by the plight of these 37 babies and these 54 children, then it's up to the prime minister to intervene. We're talking about 54 children who are in our schools right now.

The United Nations is urging the government to refrain from transferring the asylum seekers to Nauru, saying many are in a fragile mental and physical state.

In a statement, it says sending asylum seekers back would put Australia at risk of breaching its obligation not to return any person to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment under the Convention Against Torture.

An Australian paediatrician who worked on Nauru says sending the asylum seekers back will have an atrocious effect on their physical and mental health.

David Isaacs says he saw appalling suffering in the short time he was working on Nauru, and he predicts that will continue.

DAVID ISSACS: One six year old tried to hang herself, I saw children self-harming, cutting themselves, one boy of 15 sewed his lips together in protest, a peaceful way of protesting what was happening because no other way was open to him really.

At least 10 churches across Australia are offering sanctuary to the asylum seekers.

The Rector of St Cuthbert's Anglican Church in Darlington, Father Chris Bedding, says church leaders are ready to put their buildings and bodies on the line to protect the asylum seekers.

FATHER CHRIS BEDDING:They're going back to face abuse, denial of education, denial of medical care, and in some cases women who have been raped are going back to live on a small island with the people who raped them. My church and at least ten and probably more other churches around Australia are saying if the government tries to do that, we are going to offer sanctuary to those people so we can stand between them and the abuse they are going to receive."

The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, says he will carefully examine the implications of the High Court judgment, but appears to be backing his government's tough line on asylum seekers.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: If we want the capacity to bring in refugees from Syria, 12,000 additional refugees from persecuted minorities, then we need a strong border protection regime and this government will stand steadfast in protecting the border.

The Australian Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, says he will not send the children of asylum seekers back to detention camps in Nauru if they would be in danger there.

PETER DUTTON:There will be medical advice that is provided and we will look at the individual cases but I have given an assurance - I am not going to send children back into harm's way.

It is not known when the government intends to make a decision on whether to allow the asylum seekers to stay, or when they might be sent back to Nauru.

By law, the asylum seekers will get 72 hours notice from the government of deportation.