Australia Stacks Hunger-Striker Medical Assessment

Reports are emerging that the Australian Government has strong-armed its Nauru counterpart to cancel an independent medical team assessment of the Afghani refugee hunger-strikers detained indefinitely on the tiny Pacific Island.

Refugee supporter, Rohan Vora, said this afternoon Nauru is ‘playing ball’ with the Australian demand and now says “there is no need for an independent medical team to assess the situation”.

Australia’s immigration minister, Amanda Vanstone says Australia will send its own team of health officials to assess the situation on Nauru.

But Rohan Vora says there is a clear need for an independent medical team to fully assess the health situation for asylum seekers on Nauru and to consider whether the Nauru Health Service is able to meet the needs of the hunger-strikers without compromising the Nauru population’s own health needs. “We need to get stuck into IOM, publicise their lack of willingness to engage with psychiatrist Maarten Dormar and his advice previously,” Vora says.

He says the Australian Immigration will send “a private contractor used by the Australian Government to carry out its dirty work.

“They are not signatories to any International Conventions, their doctors are not free of interference and are helping to keep a lid on the situation and are by default forced to collude in their (Australia’s) inhumane and degrading activities of arbitrary, non-reviewable and indefinite detention,” Rohan Vora says.

© Scoop Media