AN asylum seeker boy being held on Nauru could be flown 10,000 kilometres to India rather than Australia for surgery on a broken arm.
ERFAN Paridari, 11, fractured his arm on May 4 after falling off a bicycle and since then doctors on the island and the International Health and Medical Services have been deciding on his treatment.
His mother has now been told he will be sent to India to receive surgery, the ABC said on Thursday. The decision follows a Nauru government request to Australia for a specialist medical team that could perform the operation on the island. Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul has been in direct contact with the boy’s mother and says the immigration department notified the family on Wednesday afternoon that they would be flown to India for the boy’s surgery. “Why India? It’s just madness,” he told AAP, adding that the department was organising travel documents for a trip that was twice as far as going to Australia. Comment has been sought from Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and his department. Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says Australian taxpayers will be left to foot the bill if the transfer goes ahead. “If it’s true, it’s just total madness,” she told ABC radio. “You couldn’t make this stuff up. What on earth is going on?”