An Australian medical team will be sent to Nauru to operate on the broken arm of a refugee boy, the Pacific island's government says.
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday denied reports his department had planned to fly the boy 10,000 kilometres from Nauru to India for surgery.
Erfan Paridari, 11, fractured his arm on May 4 after falling off a bicycle and since then doctors on the island and the International Health and Medical Services have been dithering on his treatment.
His family claims they were notified on Wednesday he would receive surgery in India.
But Mr Dutton says there are no plans to send the boy to India because there are medical services available on Nauru.
"We will provide support otherwise, but the story about going to India is not true," he said.
The Nauru government had asked Australia to send a specialist medical team to perform the operation on the island, after 11 Australian doctors who had examined the boy's X-rays warned he was at risk of being permanently disabled without surgery.
Australia had accepted the request and is sending the team, a spokesman for the Nauru government told AAP.
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young had called on Mr Dutton to bring the boy to Australia for treatment.
"For heavens sake, this is about the urgent care needed by a young boy who is suffering and in pain," she said.
