The mother of an asylum seeker who died in detention on Nauru has called on Australian authorities to allow her to bury her son anywhere but the island nation or Iran.
Fazileh Mansour Beigi claims the federal government ignored her concerns regarding the deteriorating health of her son Fariborz Karami who took his own life two weeks ago.
"Give me written permission to bury him anywhere expect Nauru and Iran," she wrote in a letter addressed to Australian Border Force and obtained by The Guardian on Thursday.
"Often, I told you and I wrote to you that my sons are depressed and exhausted 'please help a sick and feeble mother'. But, instead of support, you replied that if I couldn't tolerate it, I should return to my country."
Mr Karami's body remains in cold storage with the contractor International Health and Medical Services on Nauru.
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"I feel very much for anybody who faces personal family tragedy," cabinet minister Simon Birmingham told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.
"It's important in all of these different cases to understand the different facts and the importance as well of the border protection policies that have ensured lives have been saved, drownings at sea have stopped and ultimately that we have secure borders in Australia."
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