Government transports children from detention on Manus Island
Department of immigration says move involves 70 detainees to Christmas Island, including about 40 family members
The Guardian, Thursday 20 June 2013 09.47 BST
Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea Photograph: SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE
The government has begun transporting a significant number of children and families, as well as some adult males, from detention facilities at Manus Island in a move understood to affect the majority of family members on the facility.
Guardian Australia has learned that the transfer involves 70 detainees, including around 40 family members to Christmas Island.
A spokesman for the department of immigration said that all those transferred were still subject to the regional processing policy, but could be housed at facilities throughout Australia, rather than offshore.
Asked for the reasons of transfer, the spokesman said he could not comment for "operational reasons". He also confirmed all those transferred were still subject to the government's "no advantage" policy.
Sophie Peer campaign director for ChilOut, an asylum seeker advocacy group said: "Removing children from detention on Manus Island is a terrific first step. This cannot simply be one concession, it must be part of a policy shift, a change leading to the protection of children,"
The detention facilities at Manus Island have been heavily criticised, particularly for its lack of provision for children.
In April ABC's Four Corners spoke to Dr John Vallentine, a doctor who had worked on the island's detention facilities last year. He told the programme that the facility was "too remote" to adequately cater to the needs of child patients and had "very little in the way of paediatric equipment".
Peer added this significant transfer was a sign that offshore detention of children in particular was not working: "The debacle of this rushed Manus Island idea has resulted in billions of wasted taxpayer dollars, no processing of asylum claims, certain harm to children and has shown a complete lack of transparency not in line with the sovereign wishes of the Papua New Guinean government. We call for a complete dismantling of this approach."
