Scores of babies could be sent to island immigration camp after court ruling

Australia’s High Court threw out a challenge to offshore immigration detention camps on Wednesday, clearing the way for the deportation of dozens of infants born in Australia to detained asylum seekers. The court rejected a legal test case brought by an unidentified Bangladeshi woman that challenged Australia’s right to deport detained asylum seekers to the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru. The detention centre on Nauru houses about 500 people and has been widely criticised by the United Nations and human rights agencies for harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse.

I hope that the immigration minister and the prime minister, just like other decent Australians, can see that there is simply no excuse to take 37 babies, to rip children from their classrooms, and warehouse them on a tiny island.

HRLC Director of Legal Advocacy Daniel Webb

The Bangladeshi woman was on a boat intercepted by Australian authorities in October 2013. She was detained on Australia’s remote Christmas Island and later sent to Nauru. She gave birth to a daughter after she was transferred to Australia for medical treatment in 2014 and has remained there with her child. Other families with children born in Australia in similar circumstances are now in line to be returned to the camps. HRLC Director of Legal Advocacy Daniel Webb said: "Now, the legality may be complex. The politics may be complex. But the morality is simple. It is fundamentally wrong.“

Our borders are secure. The line has to be drawn somewhere and it is drawn at our border.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull

Australia asylum seekers