Govt vows 'compassion' with asylum seekers

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
Scores of asylum seeker families including Australian-born babies will be dealt with compassionately and will not be put in harm's way after a High Court ruling, the federal government has pledged.

But advocates say the group of hundreds could have just 72 hours notice before they are deported back to the "prison" Nauru detention centre.

The future of the asylum seekers was thrown into uncertainty yesterday, after the High Court validated Australia's offshore processing regime.

In a majority decision, the court said the detention of a pregnant Bangladeshi asylum seeker brought to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment was not unlawful.

The ruling has implications for 267 other people - including 91 children - who are in Australia for treatment.

While the government has not made a decision to deport them, advocates pleaded for sympathy.

Daniel Webb, from the Human Rights Law Centre, said a stroke of the immigration minister's pen was all it would take to let the families stay, including his Bangladeshi client.

"She is now terrified that one night soon, her and her child will be woken up and bundled on to a plane and left to languish in limbo on Nauru," he said.

The government stressed the importance of deterrence and stopping the boats.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was concerned people smugglers were sending a message to potential customers that he was a "soft touch" and they would be successful getting to Australia.

But he said cases would be considered individually and all the asylum seekers would be dealt with compassionately based on medical advice, including a five-year-old boy allegedly raped on Nauru.

"I'm not going to send children back into harm's way," he told ABC TV.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull issued a strong defence of the coalition's border protection policies, insisting people smugglers would not prevail over Australia's sovereignty.

"The line has to be drawn somewhere and it is drawn at our border," he told parliament.

Labor wants a third country resettlement option to resolve the asylum seekers' fate. It was not ruling out reviving the Gillard government's people-swap deal with Malaysia that was quashed by the High Court in 2011.

Mr Dutton said the government was in discussions with a range of third party countries but would not confirm Malaysia was among them.

It was important that a resettlement option would withstand a legal challenge and strike the right balance between compassion and not providing a "pull factor".

"We have a good relationship with Malaysia and other countries across Asia ... and those discussions will continue," he told Sky News.

Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the prime minister would be authorising child abuse if the families were sent back to the "prison island" of Nauru.

"Sending them back would be torture," she said.

The United Nations refugee agency warned that Australia must consider the best interests of children.

"This decision by the High Court greatly concerns us as these children and their families face a great risk in being sent to a place that cannot be considered safe nor adequate," UN spokesman Benyam Mezmur said in a statement.

 

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