Babies of Nauru: Lives in Limbo

The father of one of the babies facing deportation to the Nauru detention centre fears for his son’s health if he is removed from Australia.

“Life on Nauru is very bad,” Iranian refugee Matthew* tells WHO. “The sanitation and hygiene are extremely poor. We do not want our baby to be on Nauru.”

Nauru babies. Photo: Supplied

On Feb. 3, the High Court ruled the government can return families and individuals who came from offshore detention to the mainland for medical treatment. In total, 267 people, including 37 babies and 54 children, face removal.

While the ruling means that the federal government’s role in offshore detention does not breach the law, “it did not give a blanket authority for the government’s actions,” human-rights lawyer Daniel Webb tells WHO. “The court decides the legality, but it is for us to decide the morality.”

Daniel Webb. Photo: Supplied

The situation is grim for all the parents facing removal. “I want to tell the Australian people that my family needs their help,” says asylum seeker Navid, who with wife Parand has a baby boy. “I want a quiet life and for our family to be in peace.”

Among the group are children now attending schools across the country. “Kids who have had such difficult, painful lives, and they are just now starting to rebuild them,” says Webb, the director of legal advocacy at the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Centre, which first took the refugees’ case to the High Court. “It would be so tremendously cruel to uproot these children and families and condemn them to a life in limbo.”

The government, however, says it is focused on controlling national borders. “The government will take a compassionate approach to this issue,” Immigration Minister Peter Dutton tells WHO. “But ultimately the aim is for the boats not to restart and the deaths at sea to recommence.”

(*Names of all asylum seekers in this article have been changed for legal reasons.)

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