Refugee family at ‘breaking point’

BRISBANE – Refugee advocates are warning the Immigration Department the family of an Iranian woman who was raped on Nauru is now at breaking point.

Asylum seeker Nazanin is receiving treatment for kidney failure in a Brisbane hospital, after her rape and subsequent suicide attempts on Nauru.

Nazanin was on day-release from the Nauru detention centre in May when she was attacked. It took authorities three weeks and imminent organ failure to transport the 23-year-old to a Brisbane Hospital.

Her mother and her 20-year-old brother, Omid, said the Immigration Department promised to send them to Brisbane to aid Nazanin’s recovery but went back on its word.

Omid said his mother tried to commit suicide at the weekend because she could not bear the separation.

“It’s really hard for her to bear any more,” he said.

“Her daughter has deteriorated mentally and is laying on a bed in hospital.

“She’s completely deteriorated, she’s getting completely hopeless.”

Omid said the three-minute phone calls every few days that the family is allowed with Nazanin are not enough, and just cause more pain.

“The last time that I talk with her she started screaming and crying and my mother just hang up the phone.”