Hundreds converge on Lady Cilento hospital in Brisbane where one-year-old has been treated for burns sustained at Nauru offshore processing centre

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Asylum protester numbers swelled into the hundreds at the Lady Cilento children’s hospital in Brisbane on Saturday night amid signs that immigration authorities were moving to deport Baby Asha back to the Nauru detention centre.

Demonstrators on Saturday afternoon began mobilising after receiving reports of an increase in the presence of guards from Serco, the security company contracted by Australian immigration authorities.

Serco guards bar asylum seeker advocate from visiting Baby Asha in hospital Read more

Doctors at the hospital apparently stood firm on their refusal to discharge one-year-old Asha – who is being treated for burns sustained at the Nauru offshore processing centre.

As night fell, Queensland Health tweeted that Asha would remain in the hospital “overnight at least”.

Queensland Health (@qldhealthnews) We understand baby Asha will remain in LCCH overnight at least. We ask those outside the hospital to respect other patients & staff.

The government has given lawyers representing Asha and her family an undertaking that they would not be removed to Nauru without 72 hours’ notice. However, there is no restriction on moving the family within Australia, without any forewarning.



Into the evening, protesters were at times seen blocking exits around the hospital precinct and seeking to check whether Asha was inside departing cars. A candlelit vigil began and pizza arrived.



Joshua Robertson (@jrojourno) Protesters checking a car leaving Lady Cilento Children's hospital precinct amid fears Baby Asha to be taken away pic.twitter.com/EyHDJ24DxE

Doctors to propose boycott of Australian immigration detention system Read more

Natasha Blucher, a former Save the Children worker who is now advocacy coordinator for the Darwin Asylum Seeker Advocacy and Support Network, said she had been told by Asha’s mother at 9.30am on Saturday that two immigration officers had come to her room and told her she would be leaving that day. Asha’s mother also said there were plainclothes Serco guards downstairs.

When asked by Asha’s mother where they were to be taken, the officers replied: “Not Nauru, not Bita [the immigration holding centre at Pinkenba, Brisbane], not community detention but we can’t tell you.”

They told her that she could not tell her husband where they were going but “maybe he could visit them tomorrow [Sunday]”, Blucher said. It is understood Asha’s father is still being held at Bita.

An hour later, said Blucher, a doctor told Asha’s mother “not to worry, that she was not being discharged, and she could stay there in the hospital until the minister made a decision about a safe place where she could go”.

Blucher said she and other advocates became concerned after being told that Serco had been ordered by Border Force to stop Asha’s mother from receiving calls.

“Holding people incommunicado is standard operating procedure when moving somebody,” Blucher told the Guardian on Saturday night. “She’s already that terrified, she’s told me she has memorised my phone number.”

Blucher earlier in the week told Guardian Australia how she had applied to visit Asha and the mother at the hospital. She had been granted permission by the Department of Immigration but it was later revoked without explanation.



Alycia Gawthorne (@AlyciaGawthorne) Asha's lawyer was advised by Serco that Border Force have prohibited access to her mother. She cannot call or receive calls. #LadyCilento

Australian doctors on Sunday will discuss a boycott of the immigration detention system and whether they should flout the legal restrictions on speaking out about conditions.



Nauru bans entry for Australians and New Zealanders without a visa Read more

Dr John-Paul Sanggaran, who worked at the Christmas Island detention centre, has argued in the Fairfax press the current detention system is “a form a systematic child abuse ... a form of torture”.



“The only course left to us is to refuse to participate … The AMA’s own code of ethics states: ‘regardless of society’s attitudes, ensure that you do not countenance, condone or participate in the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading procedures, whatever the offence of which the victim of such procedures is suspected, accused or convicted’.

“The code of conduct could not speak more clearly or directly. By continuing to work within immigration detention we merely provide legitimacy to those that would lie and mislead the public into believing healthcare of a respectable standard is being delivered.”

Asha – a pseudonym – was born in Australia in January 2015 to Nepalese Christian asylum seeker parents.

Her first transfer to Nauru – in June when she was five months old – resulted in her contracting gastroenteritis and suffering nutrition problems because her mother’s breastmilk failed.

Before that move the government had been warned by Save the Children that it could be “potentially catastrophic” for the infant.

She was returned to Australia several weeks ago suffering burns sustained when boiling water was accidentally spilled on her.

The nature of her injuries meant she could not be treated on Nauru.

Her injuries have since been treated but doctors are refusing to discharge her because they regard the environment on Nauru as unsafe for her.