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Women and children moved from Manus Detention Center

WOMEN and children are being moved from Manus Island and the Opposition claims the plan to ensure the safety and wellbeing of refugee families is in tatters.
Single adult men are now also being rotated through the PNG camp despite the government's assurance families would be processed offshore.
Instead, remaining women and kids will be flown back to Australia over coming weeks.
With a camp in Nauru designated for families yet to be completed, the government has no offshore deterrent to try to halt the record numbers of women and children boarding asylum boats for the dangerous journey to Australia.
This month at least 55 asylum seekers have drowned and dozens more have vanished.
The flight carrying the families and single adult males arrived at Christmas Island yesterday, two months after Immigration Minister Brendan O'Connor said families would remain on Manus Island."I haven't been contemplating a change to the composition of those on Manus Province use we made a difficult decision to ensure that we deter people getting on very unseaworthy vessels," he said in late April.
Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said the rotation of single adult males had turned Manus Island into the "Getaway solution" of return tours to PNG.
"We have always said Manus was not well equipped for families, that it was poor judgment, the co-habitation with single adult males was stupid and the return of families is an admission they got it wrong," he said.
"They have no family accommodation ready in Nauru, so if you're a family and get on a boat you will not be subject to the Pacific Solution."
A spokesman for Mr O'Connor denied the transfer to Christmas Island to swap families for single men was the result of a change in policy, saying the government did not rule out children returning to Manus Island in future.
He said a permanent facility months from completion could house families, with a similar permanent camp in Nauru under construction.
The Howard government sent families to Nauru, which had a hospital and maternity unit. Pregnant women and their families had been returned from Manus because of inadequate medical facilities.
Children under seven could not remain on the island because Australian health authorities had determined they could not be adequately vaccinated against tropical disease.
Refugee groups were expected to welcome the return of families.
Herald Sun

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