The Appalling Asylum Seeker Conditions

[azureline**]

This is disgraceful and I can only hope the people who are in charge fix this asap.

An asylum seeker who was moved off Nauru to give birth is being locked up for 18 hours a day in a detention centre in Brisbane while her week-old baby remains in hospital with respiratory problems.

The case of Latifa, a 31-year-old woman of the persecuted Rohingya people of Myanmar, has shocked churches and refugee advocates.

She was separated from her baby on Sunday, four days after a caesarean delivery, and has since been allowed to visit him only between 10am and 4pm in Brisbane's Mater Hospital. The boy, named Farus, has respiratory problems and needs round-the-clock medical care.

Latifa is confined to the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation, 20 minutes away, where her husband and two children, four and seven, are being held.

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Latifa's husband, Niza, is not allowed to visit the child at all, according to people in daily contact with the family.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/asylum-seeker-mother-kept-from-newborn-baby-in...

[azureline**]

That is not how I pictured it.........

[*elizabeths-mum*]

What did you picture then Azure that made you title this thread 'appalling asylum seeker conditions'. When I read that title I immediately imagined rats and disease and abuse of all kinds.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@*elizabeths-mum* wrote:
"An asylum seeker who was moved off Nauru to give birth is being locked up for 18 hours a day in a detention centre in Brisbane while her week-old baby remains in hospital with respiratory problems."

Isn't that wonderfully emotive. You picture them being confined to a Dickensian style cell while the baby cries endlessly, alone and unloved at an inhuman faceless institution.

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*nods*

"locked up for 18 hours a day"

did you see the link of where she was accommodated?

and the baby was in hospital for 8 days, 4 of which the mother was able to be there 24/7 as she was also a patient. (Hey, I only got to stay until day 3 with my last, (following a c-section) and my kin remained another 2 days under the jaundice lamp things - I wonder if the staff "stretched out" the length of stay as long as the system allowed them to.

Regardless, these conditions lasted only 4 days, receiving good health care (although I will concede this is qld, so good is probably subjective - but hey, the baby is still alive, so it was obviously adequate) and given access to visiting for 6 hours a day despite being a detainee, and provided with reasonably comfortable short term accommodation is a low security setting.

Everyone was fed and cared for. and it was only for 4 days.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

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@my*mum wrote:

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not the neonatal, but LC spent about 10 days at the RBH, she was actually in the burns unit (but she wasn't burned) and there were some pretty sick kids some who had been there for MONTHS, and their parents were not able to stay, they weren't even allowed a meal supplied by the hospital even if they paid! They had to go to one of the canteens. ONE of us were allowed a meal the first day we were there, no showers, no laundry facilities and we didn't have the luxury of acommodation only 20 minutes away either, or of being dropped off and collected each day. We had to find and pay for parking, usually 6 to 8 blocks away if we didn't pay the car park fees and parked on the street in an area that wasn't designated 2 hours only.

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Ronald McDonald House is located at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, within close proximity of the RCH. It provides a 'home-away-from-home' for the families of seriously ill children who are undergoing treatment at the RCH and other nearby facilities. Accommodation at Ronald McDonald House allows families to stay together in a homelike environment at a fraction of the cost of a motel room, for as long as they need to, thereby helping to preserve the family unit in the midst of physical, emotional and economic adversity. Ronald McDonald House can comfortably accommodate up to 51 families. Six rooms at Ronald McDonald House are fully self-contained, making them ideal for outpatients requiring semi-isolated facilities.

http://www.health.qld.gov.au/rch/families/parent_accommodation.asp

You could have stayed at the hospital  ^^^^^^

You could have used the RBWH very large car park.  You said you paid for parking. 

some who had been there for MONTHS, and their parents were not able to stay

I don't believe this for a second.

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There were NO vacancies.... we didn't think to book ahead..... we didn't really plan this and LC wasn't considerate enough to give us any notice that she was planning to get sick, and nor were the doctors considerate enough to let us know she was being transferred immediately from the hospital she was in, and as her stay was only meant to be short term whilst she was prepared for admittance to an interstate hospital, they wouldn't even put us on the list.

So please, do not be so audacious as to tell me where she could or couldn't stay.

oh and BTW, that 10 days in a public hospital? WE were charged full price for every day and every band aid, every suture, every doctor, the costs of getting her doctors to the hospital. neither medicare or our private helath cover would cover it.

They charged for car parking at $18 a half day - after a few weeks of a kid in hospital, money became a bit tight, so we did look to use the meters on the street parking.

Believe what you like. We weren't allowed to stay in the rooms. Wards of 6 to 8. but they wouldn't let us stay in the room with the kids overnight even when the bed next to you was spare.

[polksaladallie]

Usually, difficult personal experiences make one more compassionate towards others in the same position.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

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@my*mum wrote:

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not the neonatal, but LC spent about 10 days at the RBH, she was actually in the burns unit (but she wasn't burned) and there were some pretty sick kids some who had been there for MONTHS, and their parents were not able to stay, they weren't even allowed a meal supplied by the hospital even if they paid! They had to go to one of the canteens. ONE of us were allowed a meal the first day we were there, no showers, no laundry facilities and we didn't have the luxury of acommodation only 20 minutes away either, or of being dropped off and collected each day. We had to find and pay for parking, usually 6 to 8 blocks away if we didn't pay the car park fees and parked on the street in an area that wasn't designated 2 hours only.

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Ronald McDonald House is located at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, within close proximity of the RCH. It provides a 'home-away-from-home' for the families of seriously ill children who are undergoing treatment at the RCH and other nearby facilities. Accommodation at Ronald McDonald House allows families to stay together in a homelike environment at a fraction of the cost of a motel room, for as long as they need to, thereby helping to preserve the family unit in the midst of physical, emotional and economic adversity. Ronald McDonald House can comfortably accommodate up to 51 families. Six rooms at Ronald McDonald House are fully self-contained, making them ideal for outpatients requiring semi-isolated facilities.

http://www.health.qld.gov.au/rch/families/parent_accommodation.asp

You could have stayed at the hospital  ^^^^^^

You could have used the RBWH very large car park.  You said you paid for parking. 

some who had been there for MONTHS, and their parents were not able to stay

I don't believe this for a second.

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Maybe another reason why we couldn't stay there - don't know for sure though as there were NO VACANCIES as there are only 50 rooms to service all the surrounding hospitals.... so we never delved deeper at the time....

Who can stay?
There is no means test for families to stay at Ronald McDonald House Herston. We open our doors to  families who live 50 or more klms from RBWH or RBCH whose child or baby is undergoing medical treatment at the nearby hospitals. We also cater for pregnant mothers and their families who have to travel to Brisbane for medical treatment.

To minimize risk to children with weak immune systems, anyone who is suffering from or who has recently been exposed to a communicable disease cannot be admitted (including family members with colds or flu).

Our daughter had a brain infection from a bacteria related to the meningoccal family. Chances are we had been exposed.....

[*crikey*mate*]

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@*elizabeths-mum* wrote:
What did you picture then Azure that made you title this thread 'appalling asylum seeker conditions'. When I read that title I immediately imagined rats and disease and abuse of all kinds.

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i didn't imagine abuse, but did imagine squalid living conditions - not sure it extended to rats though.

But I was expecting some horrific travesty, not a detainee for whom it seems a lot of effort was made to enable the best experience possible under such rare and atypical circumstances.

[polksaladallie]

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@my*mum wrote:

Who can stay?
There is no means test for families to stay at Ronald McDonald House Herston. We open our doors to  families who live 50 or more klms from RBWH or RBCH whose child or baby is undergoing medical treatment at the nearby hospitals. We also cater for pregnant mothers and their families who have to travel to Brisbane for medical treatment.

To minimize risk to children with weak immune systems, anyone who is suffering from or who has recently been exposed to a communicable disease cannot be admitted (including family members with colds or flu).

Our daughter had a brain infection from a bacteria related to the meningoccal family. Chances are we had been exposed.....

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OK.  I'm sorry about your daughter's illness.  I can understand your angst.  I hope she recovered well.  It is a good hospital.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

Usually, difficult personal experiences make one more compassionate towards others in the same position.

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polka, I am a very strong advocate for assylum seekers and refugees, I think that is well known.

And yes, I do wish this could have been different for this lady and her newborn.

But IMO this really is very trumped up and the expectations and condemnation of how this has been handled are completely emotive and not consideraste of just what was done to enable even what was given, as restricted as it was.

The fact is she is a detainee, that is incredibly sad, I don't know what Nauru is like, but i have a fair idea of what her 10 years in Malaysian Campswas like, but regardless, we have laws and procedures in place for all detainees and I can appreciate that exceptions to the rules take a bit more than a few days to organize.

It was 4 days, not 4 months and this woman's circumstances have been used simply as a political weapon.  - that is what I do not agree with.

Maybe now that this has happened, next time there may be better protocols in place for how to handle it, (if it is deemed necessary)

But my thoughts on this are of a precedent, further confirmed by the post made by ashjoma.

Whilst this woman's situation is more than likely genuine, it seems that there may be reason to believe that others aren't and will abuse the circumstances to gain priviledged access ahead of others. All of this has to be taken into consideration.

Had the woman or child been denied adequate medical treatment, I would have been appalled and shouting amongst the loudest in protest, but I just don't believe that under the circumstances that this lady and her family have suffered any kind of travesty or treatment befitting the term "appalling" or the emotive rhetoric of that article.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

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@my*mum wrote:

Who can stay?
There is no means test for families to stay at Ronald McDonald House Herston. We open our doors to  families who live 50 or more klms from RBWH or RBCH whose child or baby is undergoing medical treatment at the nearby hospitals. We also cater for pregnant mothers and their families who have to travel to Brisbane for medical treatment.

To minimize risk to children with weak immune systems, anyone who is suffering from or who has recently been exposed to a communicable disease cannot be admitted (including family members with colds or flu).

Our daughter had a brain infection from a bacteria related to the meningoccal family. Chances are we had been exposed.....

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OK.  I'm sorry about your daughter's illness.  I can understand your angst.  I hope she recovered well.  It is a good hospital.

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thank you, she did, several hospitals and many operations over 7 weeks, but she is all good now. I am sure it is a great hospital, but she was only supposed to be there for a short time, even we had to jump through idiotic red tape to get her the access to the doctors and care that she needed (I mean by 'even we" as people who are not detainees and under even more red tape than usual) and it takes time. When there are no ruies and procedures in place, you have to play the game and work around what is in place. And that is what i reckon has happened here.