Groups campaigning for the release of all children from Nauru, where they have been living as a result of Australia’s offshore detention policy for asylum seekers, have expressed disappointment that there are still children detained on the island despite the passing of a deadline by which they’d hoped all would have been removed.
The #KidsOffNauru campaign, backed by a coalition of refugee and humanitarian organisations, had set the deadline of Universal Children’s Day – Tuesday, 20th November – for the removal of all children off the island to Australia or another country but reports this week say 17 children remain. The last to be removed were reportedly two families – with five children – last Sunday.
A graphic on the #KidsOffNauru campaign website.
The Australian Churches’ Refugee Taskforce noted that there were 119 children detained on the island when the #KidsOffNauru campaign was launched on 20th August and that the number has since dropped dramatically. But they’ve called on the Federal Government to continue to transfer children off the island.
“Whilst we are pleased that a majority of children have been transferred to safety, we will continue to speak out until all children are safe,” the Very Rev Peter Catt, chair of the ACRT, said in a statement to Sight. “We must also remember that there remain vulnerable adults in both Nauru and Manus Island [in Papua New Guinea] and that these people need our support and advocacy as well.”
Earlier this week, World Vision Australia, one of the organisations supporting the campaign, released a statement noting the deadline had passed and saying that the Kids Off Nauru coalition was “appalled” politicians in Australia had set “such a poor example on human rights, despite Australia having a seat on the Human Rights Council”.
More than 168,000 individual Australians, 419 organisations and 65 ambassadors have signed up to a Kids Off Nauru petition calling for all detained children to be released in the three months since its launch.
The Kids Off Nauru coalition is calling for Australians to join in a rally outside Parliament House in Canberra next Tuesday at which the petition will be presented to Parliamentarians. Details of the event can be found here.
