The immigration minister Peter Dutton has described Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young’s claims that a five-year-old girl who may be sent back to Nauru was being “tortured” as “repugnant”.
Lawyers for the five-year-old are preparing to seek an injunction to prevent her being sent back to Nauru. She is one of a growing number of asylum seekers who have been brought to the mainland due to medical or mental health issues, but are now facing being sent back to Nauru.
On Wednesday, Hanson-Young told the ABC: “The minister is torturing this little child and I don’t use those words lightly. We know that the detention caused these issues for her.” She called on the minister to end the detention of the girl and allow her to remain in Australia.
On Thursday, Dutton rejected the comments, and said it was a “repugnant statement, even beneath Sarah Hanson-Young, particularly given that 1,200 people died at sea while the Greens were in government with Labor.”
Three psychiatric reports that have been prepared for the girl all recommend that she not be removed back to Nauru. They highlight extensive mental health issues, including multiple acts of self-harm, nightmares and bedwetting.
The federal government has consistently maintained that asylum seekers who are brought to the mainland for medical treatment must return to Manus Island or Nauru detention centre.
