The Anglican Church has called on the Australian Government to clarify the status of children who have been released from onshore detention.
In a statement, Bishop Philip Huggins, chair of the Anglican Church of Australia Refugee Taskforce, said that while Immigration Minister Peter Dutton announced on Sunday there are no longer any children in onshore detention, subsequent comments reported in the media suggest that the children would be going back to Nauru once they no longer needed medical support in Australia.
Bishop Huggins called on Mr Dutton to “clarify” his intentions. “We ask for an end to confusion and cruelty, and the commencement of compassion,” he said.
“The Anglican Church wants to take you at the common understanding of your words: ‘no children of boats in detention’. Please, release the children who are in Australia, in Australia.”
Bishop Huggins said the government must face the fact that there is not third country likely to take people returned to Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. “If these people are refugees, they are our responsibility to resettle honourably.”
The ABC reported on Sunday that the Federal Government had confirmed the last group of children in mainland immigration detention had been released into the community on Friday night. Mr Dutton meanwhile told reporters on Sunday that from a “peak of 2,000 children in detention under Labor, today we have no children of boats in detention”.
However, on Monday Mr Dutton reportedly told ABC radio that more than 70 babies and children who had been released from mainland immigration detention centres were still subject to being returned to Nauru once they no longer needed medical support in Australia.
