Immigration Minister must stop playing with people's lives
AMA President, Professor Brian Owler, is today calling on Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to immediately fly a pregnant diabetic Kurdish woman from detention in Nauru to Australia for urgent highly specialised medical care.
It is reported that the Kurdish woman is 40 weeks pregnant and facing a difficult birth.
Professor Owler said the Minister must stop playing with people’s lives by being inflexible with the Government’s hard-line stance on asylum seekers.
“It is time for the Minister to show some humanity and compassion and fly this desperate woman to Australia for appropriate care,” Professor Owler said.
“The baby will need specialised neonatal care.
“The fact that a request went out for a neonatal specialist to fly to Nauru for at least a week makes it clear that both mother and baby will need special care.
“These specialists are in short supply, and in very high demand in their normal practices.
“It is a nonsense to fly the doctor to Nauru. The Minister must make the order to fly the woman to Australia now.
“The Government must put human lives, human rights, humanity, and proper health services for asylum seekers ahead of inhumane policies,” Professor Owler said.
6 November 2015
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