The Guardian 7 June, 2006
Afghan boy and parents
held incommunicado in Brisbane
An extremely sick nine-year-old boy from Afghanistan and his parents have been held incommunicado by immigration officials in Brisbane since May 24. The boy was in a Brisbane children’s hospital until last Monday when he was discharged pending surgery in two weeks’ time. He and his parents are now being held under guard in a Brisbane motel.
Once the boy has had his surgery, the Department of Immigration intends to send the family to an offshore detention centre. This would mean being locked up in a remote facility with no other women or children. Nauru detention centre has just two long-term adult male detainees.
Although the family landed on Australian soil at Saibai Island, the government’s "excision" policy means they are not recognised as refugees in Australia so therefore have no protection under Australian law.
A spokesperson for ChilOut — the campaign to have refugee children kept out of detention centres — said, "this extremely vulnerable family have not had access to legal advice, which means they are incommunicado, or in ‘separation’ detention. They have been denied access to visitors from either the local Afghan community, Amnesty International or the Red Cross.
"The only contact the family has with the outside world is guards who work for GSL (the private prison company contracted to run detention centres). Those guards do not speak any of the languages of Afghanistan and are explicitly instructed not to help the family access a migration agent or lawyer.
"Above all this family must not be sent to Nauru where adequate medical treatment is not available. They must be allowed to apply for asylum in Australia and be placed in the care of the Red Cross or another suitable welfare agency", the ChilOut spokesperson said.