Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has avoided saying whether he would accept the New Zealand offer to resettle some of the group of asylum seekers intended to be returned to Nauru.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s visit comes as a stand-off continues between the immigration department and Brisbane hospital doctors over a baby known as ‘Asha’ being sent back to Nauru.
At least 267 asylum seekers in Australia face being deported after the High Court earlier this month upheld the legality of off-shore detention.
“We’ll be talking about these issues together. I don't want to foreshadow any changes to our policy,” Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Key says Australia has repeatedly rejected his offer to take some of the asylum seekers in Australian-run immigration detention since it was first made three years ago.
“That offer is there. Historically the Australians have said ‘no’,” Mr Key said.
“But it is part of the 750 allocation we have and, if they wanted us to take people then - subject to them meeting the criteria - NZ would be obliged to given the commitment that we do so.
Related reading
Comment: What will happen to baby Asha?
“At the time we said - Australia helps us with intelligence and other things that they do and so we said, look, in the end NZ will take 750 refugees.”
The dispute over Australian-born baby ‘Asha’ continues at Brisbane's Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital and her future is unclear.
"As you know, I'm not going to comment on an individual case,” Mr Turnbull said.
“But we are looking at all these cases very carefully, or (Immigration minister) Peter Dutton is. Very carefully and compassionately, on a case-by-case basis.”
Vigils outside the hospital where ‘Asha’ and her mother are being treated continue, to stop the one-year-old being sent back off-shore.
Last month, ‘Asha’ was returned to Australia from Nauru along with her parents, after being burned by boiling water.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) stands behind the doctors who refuse to discharge the child until a "suitable home environment" is found.
“The issue for us, the AMA, is to make sure the healthcare of these asylum seekers, children, is adequate and to get children out of detention facilities,” Professor Brian Owler, federal president of the AMA, told CNN.
Since rallies for ‘Asha’ of more than 200 people at the hospital started last Friday, the case has attracted international media attention.
“I think the issue with baby Asha is that doctors and nurses that are looking after children in hospitals are in Australia, are facing an incredible ethical dilemma,” Professor Owler said on CNN.
“They cannot allow children to be discharged in an unsafe environment and clearly going into a detention facility, particularly in a place like Nauru, is going to expose that child to harm.
“When you have children who are being subject to detention, and an offshore facility that is clearly unsafe, you’ve got to question whether that policy of doing harm to these children over those sort of circumstances is the right thing.”
The government of Nauru thinks differently, and has responded in a series of tweets since the weekend.
“To say raising a child on Nauru is abuse insults every Nauruan parent & the intelligence of every Australian,” the Nauru government’s Twitter account said.
“Need truth in reporting. There is no detention in Nauru. No refugee or asylum seeker is in detention. They free & part of community,” said another.
“View from a local restaurant in Nauru, which according to some is a "hellhole". Many refugees have same view,” said another post showing a bottle of cold beer silhouetted again the sunny waterfront.
More than 90 refugee and asylum seeker children, including dozens of babies, are with their families in Australia receiving medical treatment.
Lawyers for ’Asha’s family yesterday said the government has given an undertaking it would give 72-hours notice before infant and the family were going to be deported.
