The medical profession has backed calls from staff at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital for the immediate release of children from immigration detention.
But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton show no sign of relaxing asylum seeker policies.
More than 400 doctors and medical staff at the RCH sparked a national debate by highlighting the physical, emotional and mental harm caused to children in immigration detention and urging the government to release them.
Royal Australian College of Physicians president laureate Nick Talley says asylum seeker children and their families must be removed immediately from detention in Nauru.
He said the RACP wants an audit of all allegations of all sexual and physical abuse and other criminal acts at the Nauru detention centre.
It supports proposed amendments to the Border Protection Act moved by Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles making it mandatory for detention centre staff to report any suspected physical or sexual abuse within 24 hours.
“Detention centres are no place for children. This situation is unacceptable and the RACP encourages the government to respond swiftly to the recent Senate report that recommended the removal of all children and their families into the Australian community,” he said.
Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler had a blunt message for Mr Turnbull.
“The message is, get the children out of detention. There is no reason why these children need to be in detention,” he told the Nine Network on Monday.
“It is not a deterrent for the boats to stop coming.
“This is a matter of human rights, it’s a matter of stopping systematic abuse of children that is sanctioned by the Australian government.”
Introducing the amendments to the lower house in a private member’s bill on Monday, Mr Marles said: “This bill ensures that there is absolutely no doubt that staff have not only freedom to report abuse but a legal obligation to do so”.
But later, Mr Turnbull told Question Time the government’s border protection laws may seem harsh but are intended to save lives.
“We recognise that our border protection policy is tough … many would see it as harsh, but it has been proven to be the only way to stop those deaths at sea and to ensure that our sovereignty and our borders are safe,” Mr Turnbull told parliament on Monday.
The government says fewer than 100 children remain in detention, but there were as many as 2000 under Labor.