Save the Children calls on the Australian Government to come to the table and negotiate to get kids off Nauru as soon as possible.
Australia’s leading child rights organisation is making this extraordinary plea in the wake of confirmation that a further 11 children have been evacuated from Nauru for urgent medical attention.
While Save the Children remains firmly opposed to the policy of offshore processing, the priority must be to secure the transfer of all children and their families from Nauru so they can receive the health care they urgently need.
Save the Children welcomes the Opposition’s offer to progress legislation proposed by the Government in order to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees and asylum seeker families trapped on Nauru, notwithstanding serious concerns about the implications of the legislation for the rights of asylum seekers and refugees. In particular, families must not be permanently separated by such a measure.
It is with a heavy heart that Save the Children takes a step so at odds with our humanitarian values and in contravention of Australia’s international obligations, but time is running out, especially for children.
The time for empty promises has long passed and the time for action is well overdue. We call on the Government and the Opposition to act in the interests of children.
It is time for politics to be put to one side, and for a compromise to be found because children’s lives are at stake.
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