Fourteen more refugees, mostly single men – Rohingyan, Afghans, and Pakistanis – left Nauru this afternoon, Sunday 29 July, to be resettled in the US.
The group also includes the single Iranian woman who was previously, incorrectly, reported to have left Nauru on 15 July. The Iranian woman is the only Iranian from Nauru or Manus to be accepted for resettlement in the US this year.
Over 1500 people including over 120 children remain held in offshore detention on Manus and Nauru with no sign that the US ban on Iranian and Somali refugees is going to be lifted.
“The despair on Nauru increases day by day, as the toll of indefinite detention mounts. The physical and mental health of refugees on Nauru deteriorates day by day,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
The flight to the US comes on the same day as yet another family with severe mental health problems is being flown to Australia from Nauru.
The flight also comes the day before the coroner’s finding into the death of Manus asylum seeker, Hamid Khazaie, is handed down on Monday 30 July.
in late, June this year, in very similar circumstances to Hamid Khazaei, Border Force overrode Nauru doctors’ recommendations that a two-year-old girl critically ill with encephalitis be transferred to Australia for paediatric intensive care. On 3 July, the Federal Court ordered the government to bring the two-year-old and her parents to Australia where the girl could get proper care and not be subject to further risk on Nauru.
“The US deal will leave hundreds of asylum seekers and refugees at risk on Nauru and Manus with no prospect of resettlement,” said Rintoul.
“Driven in particular by Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull, the government’s desperate scare-mongering about refugees got them nowhere in the by elections held yesterday. Urgent action is need to bring all the refugees and asylum seekers from Nauru and Manus Island to Australia.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
