A 14-year-old refugee girl who had attempted suicide on Nauru by trying to set herself on fire will be moved to Australia within days – the eighth child moved from the island following a court order or the threat of legal action.



The Australian Border Force had rejected recommendations from doctors on the island to immediately move the girl to an Australian hospital for acute psychiatric treatment that isn’t available on Nauru.

An urgent application, brought by the National Justice Project, to have the girl moved was set to be heard in the federal court on Friday morning in Sydney but, just as proceedings commenced, the Australian government agreed to move her and her family to Australia.

Some details of the circumstances cannot be reported but sources on Nauru have confirmed that the girl from Iran has been held on Nauru for nearly five years with her family. The family have been recognised as refugees. Australia is legally obliged to protect them.

Repeated and escalating concerns had been raised by doctors about the girl’s mental health, which has deteriorated dangerously in recent months.

In a recent suicide attempt, the girl doused herself in petrol and attempted to set herself alight. She was rescued before she was able to seriously harm herself, Nauru sources told the Guardian.

Two years ago, Iranian asylum seeker Omid Masoumali self-immolated in a public clearing in Nauru after dousing himself in petrol. He died several days later in a Brisbane hospital after his flight off the island to a tertiary hospital was delayed several hours.

The 14-year-old girl is the eighth child to be moved from Nauru after court order or the commencement of legal action in the federal court.

She is the third case this week, after a two-year-old girl who had suffered encephalitis was ordered to Australia after first having been taken from Nauru to Papua New Guinea in defiance of the orders of doctors – who recommended she be transferred to Australia – and despite the Port Moresby hospital to which she was sent saying it did not have the equipment to adequately treat her.

The two-year-old girl and her family have since been moved to Australia.

A young girl on Nauru was also moved with her mother from Nauru to Australia – again, after the government agreed to move her just before court proceedings commenced.

They arrived in Brisbane on Friday morning and are being transferred to Sydney for care. The girl’s father remains on Nauru.

Australian courts have consistently found that healthcare on Nauru is inadequate, particularly for children suffering mental health issues, and that Australia has a duty of care to protect and treat them.

The federal court has been told there are no dedicated child psychiatrists on Nauru, and doctors have described, in affidavits before the court, that Nauru’s lone hospital “does not have the capacity to manage the complex health needs of the refugee population”.

In a case heard in Melbourne earlier this week – seeking the transfer of a two-year-old critically ill toddler – Dr Nick Martin, a former senior medical officer on Nauru for the Australian government’s offshore healthcare provider International Health and Medical Services, said that the care available on Nauru for complex cases was “grossly inadequate”.

“Paediatric healthcare on Nauru is basic … both the offshore processing centre on Nauru and the Republic of Nauru hospital have limited outpatient facilities targeted to children, and have limited resources.”

And in correspondence, an area medical director for IHMS conceded healthcare for refugees and asylum seekers was captive to the policies of the Australian government, which resists all medical transfers.

“ABF has put extreme limitations on the types of patients that we can referral [sic] offshore – it does not stop us requesting these transfers but, as we are no in control of that aspect of things, the patients are entirely at the mercy of the decisions made by ABF as regards transfers.

“It is clear that refugees cannot access the same levels of care that are available to transferees residing at the RPC [regional processing centre] and they cannot access as ‘Australian’ standard of care – certainly in relation to access to specialist care anyway … all we can do is highlight the areas of inadequacy as regards medical resources and capability – which we have done on numerous occasions.”

• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. In Nauru, the IHMS can be reached on 557 0239. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic violence helpline is on 0808 2000 247. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic Violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org