The youngest child in immigration detention in Australia is a six-week-old baby who has been dubbed a tiny bundle of misery.
The plight of baby Mia, sparked jeers of "shame" from an estimated 200 grandmothers and the odd grandfather at a protest rally on the lawns of Parliament House on Wednesday.
There are 65 children in detention as of late February but the numbers peaked at 2000 under previous Labor governments.
The protesters were decked out in purple clothes, feather boas, scarves and parasols and carried placards that read: "Once upon a time ... Australia was a decent country."
A choir of grandmothers performed an original song called "Home away from home".
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Independent MP Andrew Wilkie declared nothing was more "intimidating than a paddock full of grandmothers".
"It's not a border security issue it's a humanitarian crisis," he said.
Organiser Gwenda Davey said the protesters had placed cut-outs of children on the lawns to represent the suffering of children who had tried to find sanctuary in Australia but had been unfairly punished.
"We remind all our parliamentarians about their children and grandchildren," she said.
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the rally about her encounter with baby Mia at a detention centre in Melbourne.
One month after her birth, Mia had been as tiny as the senator's daughter who was born seven weeks premature.
"(Mia) is struggling, struggling in spirit and struggling in health," she said.
