Asylum seeker’s death preventable, says court
SYDNEY: The death of an asylum seeker held at a remote Australiarun Pacific camp from an infection was “preventable” and Canberra should improve healthcare services for detainees, said a coroner.
Under Canberra’s harsh immigration policy, asylum seekers who attempt to reach Australia by boat are sent to detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru for processing.
They are blocked from entering Australia even if they gain refugee status.
The government contracts a medical provider to deliver health services at the camps but doctors have previously criticised the facilities as inadequate.
The Iranian detainee, Hamid Khazaei, died aged 24 in September 2014, two weeks after he contracted a leg infection and was transferred from PNG’s Manus Island to the capital Port Moresby and then a Brisbane hospital.
Queensland state coroner Terry Ryan said yesterday his death “was the result of the compounding effects of multiple errors”, includ- ing delays in treating or moving him. “Khazaei’s death was preventable,” Ryan wrote in his findings. “If Khazaei’s clinical deterioration was recognised and responded to in a timely way at the (Manus) clinic, and he was evacuated to Australia within 24 hours of developing severe sepsis, he would have survived.”
Ryan said similar deaths could be avoided if asylum seekers were relocated to less remote regions where there were better healthcare services, such as Australia or New Zealand.
He acknowledged this was “highly unlikely” given Canberra’s policies, and called on the government to provide them with higher standards of healthcare.
He recommended regular audits of the clinics, for critical units to be set up near camps and for the Port Moresby hospital’s intensive care facilities to be upgraded to Australian standards.
Australia’s Home Affairs department announced that it was reviewing the findings.