blake 3:17
21st February 2016, 18:01
Baby Asha Lady Cilento vigil to continue until government guarantee made
Protesters sustained a hospital vigil through the night after celebrating what they considered a mini victory in the fight to keep an asylum seeker baby from deportation to Nauru.
The patrol will continue until the government guarantees it won't remove the one-year-old girl known as "Asha" from Brisbane's Lady Cilento Hospital.
They formed human walls to block and check police cars for the one-year-old, chanted into the night and declared they'd "sent a message" to the government.
A strong and vocal show of support, with more than 300 attendees according to organisers, quickly swelled on Saturday afternoon after concerns flared deportation was imminent.
Asha's family's advocate, Natasha Blucher, told Fairfax Media immigration officers had visited the family on Saturday morning to tell them they would be removed from the hospital shortly.
Serco guards then blocked calls to the family, further raising fears they were being made incommunicado in preparation for removal, despite a doctor assuring them they wouldn't be moved, she said.
Fairfax Media understands doctors inside the hospital discussed moving Asha to avoid officials.
Protesters gathered at all three exits to the South Brisbane hospital in an attempt to stop Department of Immigration and Border Protection officials from removing her as horns beeped in support almost non stop.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/baby-asha-lady-cilento-vigil-to-continue-until-government-guarantee-made-20160220-gmzd3o.html
Protesters sustained a hospital vigil through the night after celebrating what they considered a mini victory in the fight to keep an asylum seeker baby from deportation to Nauru.
The patrol will continue until the government guarantees it won't remove the one-year-old girl known as "Asha" from Brisbane's Lady Cilento Hospital.
They formed human walls to block and check police cars for the one-year-old, chanted into the night and declared they'd "sent a message" to the government.
A strong and vocal show of support, with more than 300 attendees according to organisers, quickly swelled on Saturday afternoon after concerns flared deportation was imminent.
Asha's family's advocate, Natasha Blucher, told Fairfax Media immigration officers had visited the family on Saturday morning to tell them they would be removed from the hospital shortly.
Serco guards then blocked calls to the family, further raising fears they were being made incommunicado in preparation for removal, despite a doctor assuring them they wouldn't be moved, she said.
Fairfax Media understands doctors inside the hospital discussed moving Asha to avoid officials.
Protesters gathered at all three exits to the South Brisbane hospital in an attempt to stop Department of Immigration and Border Protection officials from removing her as horns beeped in support almost non stop.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/baby-asha-lady-cilento-vigil-to-continue-until-government-guarantee-made-20160220-gmzd3o.html