Exclusive | Coronavirus: Australia blocks evacuation of nine-year-old girl from Wuhan, risking human rights violation
- Girl travelled to the city before Christmas with her mother, a naturalised Australian citizen born in Wuhan who then returned to Australia before the outbreak
- But was not allowed on evacuation flight because she did not have ‘legal guardianship’ with an Australian citizen for the trip
An Australian mother desperate to be reunited with her nine-year-old daughter, who was denied a place on the first evacuation flight out of the Wuhan this week, has been told to “wait until the Chinese government opens up” the virus-stricken city, even though the move risks the government violating international human rights laws.
“How can you isolate a child?” said Selina, who asked for her family name not be disclosed, told the South China Morning Post. “Isn't the first most important step to get a child out of the area? You can't just say there is no solution.”
How can you isolate a child? Isn't the first most important step to get a child out of the area? You can't just say there is no solution
Selina has made four calls to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s consular service, Smartraveller, and two to Australia’s border control department in the past five days, only to be told “there's nothing we can do”.
On Tuesday, a Smartraveller hotline consultant told Selina to “wait until the Chinese government opens up Wuhan”.
“The Australian government continues to work to assist the departure of isolated and vulnerable Australians from Wuhan. There are added complexities in cases where a child is unaccompanied for their entire journey to Australia. In all cases, the welfare of the child remains paramount. Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to comment on individual cases,” said a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade released on Tuesday evening.
Neither of Theresa’s grandparents qualified for the evacuation flight as only Australian citizens and immediate family members were allowed on the plane.
Selina’s plea to travel to Wuhan on the empty Qantas evacuation plane from Australia to collect her daughter on Sunday was also denied even after she offered to pay for the flight.
“I told them I would just sit in the plane while they board my daughter. I won't leave the plane, but they refused to entertain the idea,” she said. “They said they don't have the medical facilities for me or for that situation.”
The flight eventually left Wuhan on Monday morning and arrived at Exmouth's RAAF Base Learmonth in Western Australia, with the 241 passengers then transferred to Christmas Island for quarantine. There were 600 Australians registered in Hubei province last week.
Selina said she was even willing to go to the Christmas Island quarantine facility to stay with her daughter once she had been evacuated.
I don't know when she will be out. She needs care, school and protection
“I don't know when she will be out. She needs care, school and protection,” said Selina.
Selina’s parents had planned to go to Australia with Theresa on January 27, but their trip was thwarted after Wuhan shut down transit in and out of the city on January 23.
“Get the little one out of here ASAP,” Selina was told by her father.
As of Tuesday morning, deaths in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, rose by 64 to 414. In figures current as of midnight on Monday, the health commission of Hubei also reported 2,345 new cases of infection. Of those, 1,242 were reported in Wuhan, the province’s capital and where the contagion, also known as 2019-nCoV, began.
The case, though, has put the Australian government in danger of violating its human rights obligations under the international human rights treaty for children and parents, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to Greg Barns, Australian barrister and spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance.
Australia is a signatory to both treaties, and according to the CRC, “in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration”.
“In the law, the interests of the child is paramount,” said Barns, who was an adviser to WikiLeaks. “To leave the child there is both morally and legally wrong.
“In this case, the government could have worked with the parents to allow the child to leave with a suitable care arrangement with the airline.”
Britain initially also refused to evacuate dual citizens and British permanent residents with Chinese passports, and these countries could now face a looming legal issue involving human rights in particular those affecting children, lawyers have said.
According to Barns, Australia could rush a new bill into parliament this week to override the legal guardianship limitations amid an emergency, having made such a move during the controversial Tampa scandal in 2001 when it refused permission for the Norwegian freighter, MV Tampa, carrying 433 rescued refugees to enter Australia.
Within days, the government introduced the Border Protection Bill that allowed Australia to “determine who will enter and reside in Australia”.
