The asylum-seeker baby at the centre of an immigration storm has been discharged from a Brisbane hospital.
“She’s in community detention,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told the Nine Network on Monday.
“Obviously the support will be provided to the family and that’s been the case for 83 other people including women and children that have come to Australia for medical assistance or the family members of somebody who has.”
Baby Asha’s fate sparked a week of rallies outside Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital after doctors refused to release her, fearful she would be returned to detention on Nauru immediately.
Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler said he didn’t believe community detention had been the immigration minister’s plan all along.
“What baby Asha’s case has done is really put some perspective for the public, giving at least one child a face and a name,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
“I do hope public opinion is starting to change.”