The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners today reiterated its call that all children must immediately be removed from immigration detention.
“The publication of documents from inside the immigration detention system today by The Guardian Australia are a shameful indictment of a failed policy and can leave absolutely no doubt that children are being harmed,” president of the RACGP, Dr Frank R Jones said.
“As the peak body representing doctors who provide healthcare for families and children in Australia we are gravely concerned by a detention system that is inherently harmful to children, particularly as there are no safeguards which can be instituted by the Commonwealth to protect these children,” he said.
Since the reintroduction of the offshore detention program for asylum seekers arriving by boat to Australia, RACGP members and other health professionals have consistently raised concerns about the conditions on Nauru for asylum seeker women and children.