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Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull
Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull. Labor says the home affairs minister should allow eligible refugees in Australia the opportunity to apply to resettle in the United States. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Peter Dutton and Malcolm Turnbull. Labor says the home affairs minister should allow eligible refugees in Australia the opportunity to apply to resettle in the United States. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Dutton urged to allow refugee families in Australia to apply for US resettlement

This article is more than 5 years old

Labor push follows revelations a family of four split between Nauru and Australia since 2014

Split up refugee families stuck in limbo because of Australian government policy could be reunited if Peter Dutton let them apply for US resettlement from Australia, the opposition has said.

The comment follows revelations by Guardian Australia that a family of four had been split between Nauru and Australia since 2014.

Australian Border Force has told the 27-year-old daughter on Nauru that they could be reunited but only if her mother and sister returned to the island. The mother is in Australia confined to a wheelchair and awaiting surgery, and doctors have said she cannot go back.

While the mother and one daughter are in Australia they cannot apply for resettlement in the US, offered under a deal struck between the Australian government and the Obama administration. More than 220 have been resettled, out of a promise of “up to 1,200”.

“Labor strongly supports the US refugee resettlement agreement and wants all eligible refugees – including those in Australia for medical treatment – to have the opportunity to apply for resettlement in the US,” the shadow minister for immigration, Shayne Neumann, said.

“The long-term issue of asylum seekers from Manus Island and Nauru in Australia could have been avoided entirely if Peter Dutton simply allowed eligible refugees in Australia the opportunity to apply to resettle in the United States.”

Previous queries to the Department of Home Affairs have been directed towards comments from department secretary Michael Pezzullo to Senate estimates earlier this year.

Asked about the case of a young man separated from his wife and baby, Pezzullo said people were – in general – expected to return to Nauru or Manus Island to apply.

“If there is a particular vulnerability, or for compassionate reasons, I can see there could be a circumstance where the minister or the minister’s delegate might allow them to come to a different view,” he said.

There are no cases Guardian Australia is aware of where people have been allowed to apply from Australia.

Narges and her brother Daryoush, who are currently languishing on Nauru, have suffered mental and physical illnesses while there, and psychiatrists and health providers contracted by the Australian government have repeatedly recommended the family be reunited, to no avail.

The Greens senator and immigration spokesman, Nick McKim, said the family deserved safety and the right to be together.

“This has been denied to them,” he said. “It’s difficult to comprehend what a horrible bind Narges and her family have been placed in because of the cruelty of Peter Dutton’s decisions.

“There is no possible purpose to be served by forcibly separating this family and indefinitely detaining them, other than cruelty for cruelty’s sake.

“Basic compassion and dignity should not be too much to ask, even after all they have been through.”

McKim called for the family’s immediate reunification in Australia.

Neumann said Dutton had also failed to respond to the recommendations made by a Senate inquiry into allegations of abuse, self-harm and neglect at Australia’s offshore processing centres.

The inquiry determined the Australian government had to admit it controlled the detention centres and had a duty of care to asylum seekers and refugees. To suggest anything else was “fiction”, it said.

Other recommendations included increasing Australia’s refugee intake, more funding to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, a regional processing framework and an immediate external review of the department’s medical transfer procedures.

The inquiry was called following Guardian Australia’s publication of the Nauru Files, which detailed more than 2,000 leaked incident reports from the detention centre including numerous instances of abuse and trauma, and widespread mismanagement by service providers and government.

The reports included revelations about the government’s efforts to avoid transferring people to Australia, including in the case of a young woman who had been raped. Every service provider and authority on the island, including the Nauruan government, had recommended she be transferred to Australia but the request were ignored for months.

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