Telethon Kids calls for urgent removal of kids on Nauru

The Telethon Kids Institute is calling for the immediate removal of all refugee and asylum seeker children and their families from Nauru. 

Institute Director, Professor Jonathan Carapetis

Institute Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis said the detained children needed to be urgently transferred to a new location that offered a healthy and nurturing environment with the necessary preconditions for good child development and maintenance of strong mental health.

“As a leading medical research institute dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of all children, many of our staff of more than 700 clinicians, researchers and postgraduate students, are concerned by the media reports of the deteriorating physical and mental health of child detainees due to their detention,” Professor Carapetis said.

“There is ample evidence here and internationally of the considerable harm to children’s health and development from living in circumstances such as those faced by families living in detention in Nauru.

“Offshore detention of children and families seeking asylum contravenes Australia’s responsibilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular, the right to health.”

Telethon Kids joins the calls by many other leading organisations and respected health professionals for the Australian Government to release refugee and asylum seeker children and their families from Nauru by Universal Children's Day (20 November).