Malcolm Turnbull has weighed into the case of a Brisbane hospital that is refusing to discharge a baby facing removal to Nauru, saying the government would not “imperil the health or security of any individual”, as Australia came under further international pressure over its asylum policies.

The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, condemned Australia’s immigration detention policies as “scandalously objectionable” and said it needed to develop a humane response, “starting with an end to the detention of children and their families”.

Speaking in Townsville, the prime minister stressed the need for compassion, but reaffirmed his determination to maintain a hardline policy towards asylum-seeker arrivals because the “ruthless” people smugglers should not be given “one inch of encouragement”.

The child, known as Baby Asha, was born in Australia to asylum-seeker parents and removed to Nauru in June at the age of five months. She is now 12 months old and has been in Brisbane for several weeks receiving treatment for burns at the Lady Cilento hospital.

Doctors have refused to discharge Asha because they believe the island’s detention centre is not safe. The hospital said the patient would “only be discharged once a suitable home environment is identified”.

Turnbull was asked about the case during a media conference on Monday. “We are assessing all of these cases carefully on a case by case basis,” the prime minister said.

“No decisions would be taken which would imperil the health or security of any individual. We’re managing this policy with great care and with great compassion, and at the same time doing everything we can to ensure that we do not do anything or say anything which will be used by the people smugglers to get more vulnerable people onto those boats.”



Turnbull said the government wanted to reduce the number of children in detention “but it is a difficult job, because we have to do it in a way that gives no incentive to the people smugglers, who are ruthless”.

“We give them one inch of encouragement and there will be more people on boats and we’ll be back to what we had with the Labor party, I regret to say, which will be thousands of unauthorised arrivals and hundreds of people drowned at sea,” he said.

Baby Asha’s Nepalese Christian parents arrived in Australia by boat seeking asylum. The family was removed to Nauru over the objections of child welfare agency Save the Children who argued the leaking tents, and rat infestation in the section of the camp she was sent to be sent to would be “potentially catastrophic” for her well-being.

Asha almost immediately fell ill on Nauru, and her mother’s breastmilk failed, reportedly because of the stress of detention.

Asha was returned to Australia several weeks ago after boiling water was accidentally spilled on her.

She has been treated, but doctors have refused to discharge her. A spokeswoman for Lady Cilento hospital said the baby would not be discharged until “a suitable home environment is identified”.

Demonstrators campaigning to keep the family in Australia have camped outside the hospital, sustained by food served by hospital staff. Rallies were held on Saturday and Sunday, and another was planned for Monday afternoon.

Australia’s medical fraternity continues to protest against immigration detention policies, in defiance of the Border Force Act, which carries a potential two-year jail term for “entrusted persons” who speak out about conditions in detention.

Australasia Psychiatry’s February issue published five papers dedicated to the mental health impacts of immigration detention.

Dr Robert Adler, a psychiatrist who worked on Nauru, and a former refugee himself, wrote that having seen the despair and helplessness of asylum seekers on Nauru, he felt compelled to speak out.

“I am appalled by the policies of both major political parties which support mandatory detention and offshore processing. They appear to think it is acceptable to pay, or bribe, some of the poorest countries in our region to take people we do not want, to ‘Stop the boats’.

“I accept that we need to do what we can to dissuade people from getting on leaky, dangerous boats but I am cynical enough to believe that ‘offshore processing’ is at least in part a case of out of sight and out of mind.”

Dr Peter Young, formerly the director of mental health for International Health and Medical Services, and Dr Michael Gordon of Monash University, examined mental health data of asylum seekers in detention, finding that those in detention had significantly higher rates of mental illness, and that the longer people were held in detention, the more unwell they became.

“Approximately one-half of the refugee group... had PTSD symptoms, and one-third of the children, adolescents and adults had clinical symptoms requiring tertiary outpatient assessment.”

Louise Newman, Michael Dudley, and Sarah Mares examined the role of doctors in the immigration detention system, the impediments to clinical autonomy caused by the regime and the legal restrictions to publicly raising concerns.



