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Panel to review asylum seeker transfers

No more asylum seeker children will be held on Nauru

No more asylum seeker children will be held on Nauru Photo: World Vision

The federal government will set up an independent review panel to provide “greater assurance” over asylum seeker medical transfers from regional processing centres to Australia and third countries.

The initiative adds another layer of medical oversight to the transfer process and the panel will maker regular reports to parliament.

“We’ve always had a medical transfers process but this is about giving Australians greater assurance that people in offshore processing get the right support,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday.

“Operation Sovereign Borders strikes the compassionate balance between stopping the boats and ensuring genuine asylum seekers are recognised and resettled in a safe third country.

The Department of Home Affairs will still oversee the transfers, with the new panel to provide extra information for decision making.

The initiative comes ahead of parliament resuming next week when Labor and crossbench MPs are expected to back an independent bill to give doctors more say in whether or not refugees in offshore detention should be moved to the mainland for medical treatment.

Despite the timing, the coalition government says the creation of the panel is a standalone policy.

The five-member panel consists of a professional nominated by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer, an expert with torture and trauma counselling experience, a nominee of the President of the Australian Medical Association, and two experts nominated by the Department’s Chief Medical Officer.

The panel will report to parliament’s joint standing committee on migration twice a year.

An inpatient mental health service has also been established at the Pacific International Hospital in Port Moresby, to help asylum seekers sent to the country by the government.

On Sunday it was revealed that no more asylum seeker children will be held on Nauru, with the final four preparing to fly to the US with their families for resettlement.

There are now only single male asylum seekers remaining on the island, 130 of which the government says are not refugees.

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