Lawyers for a five-year-old asylum seeker with post traumatic stress disorder held in Darwin’s Wickham Point detention centre are preparing to seek an injunction to stop her being moved back to Nauru.

The girl is one of a growing number of asylum seekers who have been brought to Australia from Manus Island or Nauru with serious physical or psychological conditions.

Their stays are supposed to be temporary, but in a number of cases lawyers are preparing to take action to halt their removal.

A drawing purportedly of a person with stitched lips drawn by a five-year-old girl held in detention in Darwin released by her lawyers. Photograph: supplied

The ABC reported the girl had displayed inappropriate sexual behaviour from her time at the Nauru detention centre.

A review by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss last month found there was evidence that sexual assaults had taken place at the detention centre.

John Lawrence SC, acting for the family, told Guardian Australia that when he visited the family and met the girl on Sunday, he asked her to write her name on a page next to his, in an effort to begin conversation.



“I wrote ‘Johnny’ and asked her to write her name, and she wrote her name which wasn’t her name at all but was in fact her ... designation within the department, the numbers ascribed to a boat on which she arrived at Christmas Island in 2013,” he said.

Lawrence then asked her to draw pictures of Nauru and she drew suns, saying it was hot. “Then she drew a stick figure which depicted a person with lips which had stitches on them and she used a red crayon to draw the stitches,” Lawrence said.

Three recent psychiatric reports seen by Guardian Australia stated categorically the girl should not be sent back to Nauru. They recommended the family be given community detention, listing the girl’s “supportive parents” as a protective factor.

The psychiatric assessments detailed the girl’s mental health problems, including a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder, multiple acts of self harm, nightmares and bedwetting. A further report from a psychologist said depression and extreme anxiety were “pervasive throughout all areas of her life”. One of the psychiatrist’s reports said that was triggered by reminders of Nauru.

Other documents seen by Guardian Australia say the young girl was exhibiting “sexualised behaviour” at the Nauru facility last year, and her parents reported the girl had been exposed to sexualised behaviour on Christmas Island. She was seen by medical professionals on Nauru who determined “no concerns identified”.

Lawrence, a criminal lawyer, is taking action in the federal court on behalf of the family to keep them in Australia after the father’s medical treatment is completed.

“The first and foremost concern is the prospect of being returned to Nauru,” Lawrence said.

The immigration department has repeatedly stated detainees who are brought to Australia for medical treatment are told they will be returned to the offshore detention facilities.

“The department of immigration can say that, but they also know this child is suffering from serious psychiatric illness,” Lawrence said.

“We’re happy to engage with the department to achieve something that is humane. The other thing that is relevant to this family’s situation and the way the government deals with them, is the father has two uncles resident in Australia and living in Sydney and we’re hoping the government will grant them some type of community visa.

“As a criminal lawyer of over 25 years experience I’ve visited all types of people in prison. To visit a prisoner in an Australian jail who is a five-year-old girl is deplorable, offensive and depressing, and it just shouldn’t happen.”

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has been contacted for comment.

