Myanmar News Articles: Asylum seeker baby not a 'political football'

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November 27, 2013 - 12:01AM

Amy Remeikis

State political reporter

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31-year-old Rohingyan woman Latifar with her sick newborn baby. Photo: Supplied

Born two and a half weeks early, a baby boy has become an unlikely symbol in the nation's asylum seeker debate.

To the government, he and his family are known as BZAFW, a random collection of letters used in these sorts of cases, to protect identities.

To his family he is Ferouz. Now 21 days old, he is still recovering from his traumatic caesarean birth, suffers from respiratory problems and is completely unaware of the legal firestorm his arrival has created.

Latifar with her newborn baby, Ferouz. Photo: Max Reithmuller, Refugee Action Coalition

Ferouz's mother, Latifar, a 31-year-old Roringyan woman originally from Myanmar, was flown from Nauru to Brisbane on October 17, with authorities worried the detention centre did not have the facilities to handle what they knew would be a difficult birth.

On November 6, Ferouz was born. Four days later, his mother was separated from him and taken back to detention. Mid-last week, Ferouz was returned to detention where his mother, father, sister and brother were waiting. Since then, lawyers have been fighting over the family's fate.

A Federal Circuit Court Judge is considering whether she has the jurisdiction to hear the matter.

That decision is due to be handed down on Friday.

In the meantime, Misha Coleman, a spokeswoman for the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce wants to know what it would take for the nation to care.

"We are appealing to the decency and the humanity of all Australian parliamentarians. Minister Morrison does have the ability to lift the bar here," she said.

"We are saying that babys should not be used for political footballs. These are children, who are God's children and we have the responsibility as Christians to care from them in the way we would all want to care for our own children.

"We are worried as churches that in 2040, this will be the next royal commission, we will be saying this is how we treated a whole cohort of people and we'll be saying sorry.

"So in 2040, our parliamentarians will have to get up and apologise for the way we have treated [asylum seekers] especially children, and we as churches want to prevent going down that path again."

Counsel for the government has argued that no decision about the family's fate has yet been made and therefore any action is premature.

Defenders of the government's immigration policy argue that by allowing Ferouz's birth to alter how the family is treated will open the floodgates.

Ms Coleman disagrees.

"After meeting the family yesterday, I find it really offensive, this narrative that having a baby is somehow some sort of an illegal rort of the system," she said.

"It is legal in Australia to seek asylum and it is legal for a loving married couple to have a baby and that baby has rights.

"And whatever we think about asylum seeker policy, we should all respect the rights of that baby and their family in Australia."

Ferouz's parents escaped Myanmar and spent more than a decade in a Malaysian camp before making their way to Indonesia, hoping to get to Australia. They were waylaid at Christmas Island and sent to Nauru.

Murray Watt, spokesman for Maurice Blackburn, the legal firm which has taken the family's case pro bono, says it is time Australia had a conversation about the issue.

"[it is] obviously important that we continue our legal arguments but it is just as important for Australians to make their voices heard," he said.

"Now we are out of an election atmosphere, I think it is the proper time for Australians to think about whether we want to be the kind of country which is removing small children and putting them in detention overseas."

Mr Watt said Ferouz's birth on the Australian mainland raised some uncomfortable questions for the government.

"When you think about the position that this baby is in, it is no different ... to my own family – they are Australian citizens," he said.

"The government have no right to remove an Australian citizen from the mainland and take that person to Nauru and for that reason we argue that the government has no right to remove that baby."

The case will be heard again on Friday at 3pm.