The Greens have accused the Abbott Government of ‘mental torture’ after a five-year-old Iranian asylum seeker reportedly attempted self-harm by swallowing shampoo and nails.
A lawyer for the girl said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and is in fear of being returned to Nauru.
The girl wrote her boat number when asked to write her name, and when asked to draw a picture of life on Nauru drew an image of a person with their lips sewn shut.
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Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has urged the Abbott Government to stop her transfer from Darwin to Nauru, describing it as “mental torture”.
Senator Hanson-Young said Immigration Minister Peter Dutton had to step in.
“Medical experts have clearly advised that the girl’s illness is associated with conditions on Nauru,” she said.
“Sending her back there will cause further harm.”
In a statement provided to SBS and other media, Mr Dutton described the comments as “repugnant”.
“That’s a repugnant statement, even beneath Sarah Hanson-Young, particularly given that 1200 people died at sea while the Greens were in government with Labor,” he said.
Further comment has been sought.
'She used red crayon to draw the stitches'
The girl’s lawyer John Lawrence previously said that the five-year-old had been in detention for more than a year and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I asked her if she could remember Nauru, and she said yes," Mr Lawrence said.
"She then proceeded to draw a stick figure of a person with his lips or her lips stitched up; she used red crayon to draw the stitches."
The Department of Immigration has said it would take three years for the family's claim to be processed, the lawyer claimed.
"That's of course assuming this little girl will be alive three years from now, because the medical reports tell me there have been reported incidences of her self-harming... swallowing shampoo and swallowing nails," Mr Lawrence said.
He said the girl's mother had suffered episodes of depression as well as attempting self-harm.
With AAP.
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