Mental Health of Children in Australian Detention Center Reaches ‘Crisis Point’

SYDNEY, Australia — The Australian government will allow a young girl to leave an offshore detention center on the Pacific island nation of Nauru and seek medical care in Australia, the latest in a series of refugee children who have asked to be let into the country for treatment.

The decision came just before a federal court hearing on Wednesday at which lawyers for the girl’s family planned to argue that she be brought to Australia immediately. She has serious mental health issues and is likely to leave for Australia on Friday, according to The Guardian Australia.

The girl, whose name and age have not been disclosed, is at least the seventh seriously ill child to be brought to Australia under legal pressure since the Nauru center reopened in 2012, according to the National Justice Project, a nonprofit legal service that has represented most of them, including the girl on Wednesday.

The seven children include one girl in February and a 10-year-old boy in March who were considered to be at risk of killing themselves.