Protesters have surrounded exit points at the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, hoping to stop immigration officials from transferring an asylum seeker baby.
Baby Asha was being treated in Brisbane for injuries after the one-year-old was accidently burnt by boiling water in a tent on Nauru in January.
Doctors at the hospital have refused to release her until a suitable home environment is found.
Demonstrators have been camping outside the hospital in support of doctors and the child, who faces the possibility of being returned to the Nauru immigration processing centre with her parents.
At least 200 protesters are at the scene and some have blocked vehicles on roads leading to the hospital in Brisbane’s inner south, to check the child was not inside.
Refugee advocates said it appeared security guards employed by the Department of Immigration were gearing up to move an asylum seeker baby and her mother from the hospital.
However, Queensland Health said the child will remain in the hospital overnight at least and have asked protestors to respect visitors to the hospital.
Natasha Blucher, who is an advocate for the family and the baby, said the mother was told by immigration officials she would be leaving the hospital today.
“We are a bit concerned about the baby and her mum she had a bit of a fright this morning because immigration officers came to her room to speak to her and told her that she would be leaving the hospital today,” she said.
“She was told that the hospital is not discharging her and now I have been trying to get in touch with her and she is not able to take phone calls.”
Ms Blucher said it was not clear where the child and her family may be taken.
“There were a number of plain-clothes security officers downstairs that would be taking her. She told me she didn’t know where she would be going because they wouldn’t tell her and she was quite afraid,” she said.
Asha is one of a group of 267 people, including more than 30 babies, who could be sent back to Nauru after the High Court threw out a challenge to the Government’s offshore detention network earlier this month.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Health Minister Cameron Dick have voiced support for hospital staff.
A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said nothing has changed and the Department was still negotiating with the hospital about baby Asha.