Love Makes A Way Condemns Asylum Seeker Return

Love Makes A Way Condemns Asylum Seeker Return

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that the government will return asylum seeker children to Nauru after their medical treatment.

Love Makes A Way has condemned the Prime Minister’s statement, which comes after reports that the government would remove all children from Nauru by year’s end.

Speaking on Sky News, the Prime Minister said that sending the children back after treatment had been the plan all along.

“Because that’s consistent with the policy that we have as a government. That’s why they’re still there,” Mr Morrison said.

“And when there is the ability for them to be transferred to the United States, or whether there are medical issues that require to their transfer to Australia, then that’s what will occur.”

Mr Morrison said that sending the children back to Nauru after treatment has “always been the case.”

“That hasn’t changed. That’s the policy … our policy settings have not changed.”

Love Makes A Way’s Matt Anslow told Insights that the Prime Minister “let the announcement of evacuating children from Nauru sit in the public space, with no intention of following through on it, as a way to increase his party’s chances in the Wentworth by-election.”

“Dr Kerryn Phelps, after all, won largely on a strong pro-refugee platform,” Dr Anslow said.

“While the government’s obfuscation on whether it will evacuate children from Nauru is awful, the fact is that nothing has changed about the government’s policy — for the last five years the government has maintained its intention to return children to Nauru following medical treatment.”

“This policy is incredibly heinous. Back in 2015, it led a five-year-old girl to attempt suicide for fear of being returned to Nauru. What kind of policy leads a five-year-old to do something like that? What kind of country?”

Christians, Dr Anslow said, have a responsibility to speak up on the treatment of asylum seekers.

“Love Makes a Way has said it constantly, and we’ll keep saying it: Christians worship a person who taught us to treat neighbours and enemies in a manner in which we would want to be treated,” he said.

Dr Anslow said that now is the time for Christians to engage on the topic, as politicians are listening and there is momentum.

“We’d never want to be treated in the way we treat refugees in this country. That’s why Christians must continue to be at the forefront of speaking up on this issue.”

Jonathan Foye is Insights’ Editor

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