The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is refuting claims department officers attempted to remove baby Asha and her mother this morning from Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane.
Natasha Blucher from the Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network told SBS News she understood from Asha’s mother that two Immigration officers spoke to the mother around 7am on Saturday morning and informed her she and Asha were to go with them and refused to say where she was being taken.
“I spoke with the mother at 7am by phone and she said that two immigration officers had come into the hospital and told her they were being taken from the hospital but would not say where she was going, but they did say it was not Nauru, community detention or a detention centre,” Ms Blucher said.
“There was also a large number of Serco officers in plain clothes waiting inside the hospital in the morning she told me.”
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection rejected the claim as untrue and said there had been no attempt to remove baby Asha from the hospital and that none was planned for tonight.
“There is no change in the current situation planned today”, the spokesman told SBS News.
The twelve-month-old Asha is in the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane after being admitted last month for treatment for accidental burns from boiling water while in detention on Nauru.
Ms Bulcher said after being confronted by immigration officials the mother went back to her room and refused to leave and was reassured by hospital doctors they would not be discharging baby Asha.
“She felt better after the doctors told her that, but she is still concerned that immigration will try and take her without the doctor’s consent,” Ms Bulcher said.
Activist organisation GetUp told SBS News it had also been informed of the attempt to remove baby Asha and her mother and taken to social media with the claim.
Ms Bulcher also said when she tried to call the mother again in the afternoon she was told by Serco security staff the mother was not able to receive calls and no explanation was given.
Protesters have gathered outside the hospital and are holding vigil to try and prevent baby Asha and her mother’s removal.
