URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO STOP REMOVAL OF SERIOUSLY ILL ASYLUM SEEKER CHILD

Hi everyone,

The Immigration department is up to its usual trickery once again. We need your help to save the life of a seriously ill, nine year old Afghan boy in Brisbane, who the Immigration department is proposing to send to Christmas Island, far from specialist medical care. Here is some more information about the child from Campaign Director at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre - Pamela Curr.

I am requesting your assistance to stop the removal of a seriously ill, nine year old Afghan child and his parents to Christmas Island. The reason for this is that the child has Hereditary Spherocytosis. http://www2.texaschildrenshospital.org/internetarticles/uploadedfiles/85.pdf

Hereditary Spherocytosis results is an over production of red cells with severe anaemia, splenomegaly and jaundice as these break down. This child has had both his spleen and his gall bladder removed in the past month to alleviate the condition. The condition can not be cured but with good medical care can be controlled. Without a spleen this child is highly susceptible to infection. He must remain on daily antibiotics and be watched for any sign of infection as this could become life threatening within hours.

This family is awaiting a decision on their protection visa application. They arrived on Saibai Island around the 22nd May. They came to Australia seeking asylum and in desperation, medical care for their child who was at this time desperately ill. The family was taken to the Royal Brisbane Children’s Hospital for urgent care. They are now in community detention under guard somewhere in Brisbane.

The Immigration department is now proposing to send the family to Christmas Island which is 2,600 kms from Perth and the nearest specialist medical facility. Currently there is no doctor on Christmas Island although the doctor will return in a few weeks. Normally there is one doctor on the island and one on circuit through the other islands. The Medical facilities for a child with a life-threatening condition are dangerously inadequate.

Recently a West Papuan child on Christmas Island required two trips back and forth from Christmas Island to Perth for medical care. This necessitated flights with her father and two guards at enormous cost and great stress. In 2002 Fatima a 27-year-old Afghan woman died as a result of high blood pressure which caused a brain haemmorrhage. She had been given Panadol for 3 days before collapsing.

The child's doctors have stated that he must remain close to specialist medical facilities. The practicalities are that if the child developed an infection, it could take at least 24 -36 hours to authorise a plane and then to organise a flight to Perth. This proved too long for Fatima. We must not allow this child to be placed at risk of a similar fate.

Please intervene to save this child’s life.

Yours Sincerely
Pamela Curr

SO... WORTHY OF ACTION?

If you think so, please contact your local MP's office and the offices of your state or territory senators to raise the matter of this child urgently. Just drop them an email - it doesn't have to be too shiny or sophisticated. Just let them know you're not happy.

* Contact details for Federal MPs
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/index.htm
* Find your electorate
http://www.aec.gov.au/esearch/main.htm
* Contact details for Senators
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/index.htm

Also - if you haven't yet, sign the petition at www.getup.org.au

All the best,

Jess x

(the pic is from wikipedia)