Over 85 children and other families from the Nauru and Manus Island detention camps must be urgently evacuated the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has called.

Along with the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses, the Australian Medical Association, Medecins Sans Frontiers and other health professionals, the ANMF is demanding the Prime Minister to take action immediately.

According to the organisations nurses have a “responsibility to advocate for the fair and compassionate treatment of people who are at risk and in need of healthcare, including those who are enduring mental health distress and despair.”

“Australia’s current policy of keeping babies, young children and their families locked-up in mandatory detention centres is morally reprehensible,” ANMF Federal Secretary Annie Butler said.

“As nurses we are all too-aware of the devastating impacts that mandatory detention is having on the physical, mental and emotional health of asylum seekers, particularly those young children living behind bars.”