THE opposition is demanding Immigration Minister Scott Morrison release the full medical report for an asylum seeker who died after a cut on his foot became infected.
THERE was almost a day’s delay between a request for urgent medical evacuation of Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei from Manus Island and when he was actually moved to Port Moresby, medical reports obtained by News Corp and the ABC show.
A medical report from the Manus Island detention centre on the morning of August 25 says all antibiotic treatments available to Mr Kehazaei on the island had been exhausted and he should be transferred in the care of a medical officer on a commercial flight at 5.30 that evening. A subsequent report said he didn’t arrive in Port Moresby until 4.15pm the next day, when he came via air ambulance. The 24-year-old was then transferred to hospital in Brisbane, where he later died. Labor’s immigration spokesman, Richard Marles, wants the government to release its Chief Medical Officer’s report into the incident. “We need to know how someone with a cut to their foot ends up losing their life,” he said in a statement. The minister had given a draft final report into the incident to the Queensland Coroner and Mr Marles believed it should be made public. The Australian Greens said the leaked medical documents showed Mr Kehazaei “died of wilful neglect at the hands of the immigration minister” and called for Mr Morrison to be sacked.