Seena Akhlaqi Sheikhdost's parents were killed in the Christmas Island boat tragedy. Picture: Sam Mooy Source: The Daily Telegraph
Eleven survivors of the Christmas Island shipwreck in December will be released from detention this week.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said on Thursday that an Iranian boy orphaned by the tragedy and some of his surviving relatives would soon be released into the community.
Nine-year-old Seena is one of three children among the 11 detainees to be let out of Christmas Island's immigration detention facility following the accident which killed up to 50 people on December 15.
Human rights lawyer George Newhouse released a statement on behalf of Seena's Sydney-based family on Sunday.
"The family do not wish to make any comment about the circumstances of their removal from Sydney to Christmas Island. Their focus is on the welfare of Seena," it read.
"Issues regarding the removal of the family are secondary to the emotional wellbeing of a nine-year-old orphan and the other traumatised survivors.
"These issues can be considered once they are safe with their family on the mainland."
Seena and some of his relatives, including an aunt, were flown to Sydney by the government last week to attend the funerals of loved ones, including Seena's father.
But Mr Bowen had them returned to Christmas Island, despite other Sydney-based relatives offering to care for the boy.
Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the handling of Seena's case had been a "debacle" and it was outrageous that 1065 children were being held in Australian immigration detention.
"We need to fast-track the process and get those kids and their families out of detention, that's an absolute must," Senator Hanson-Young told ABC Television on Sunday.
"But we also need to fix things for the longer term."
Senator Hanson-Young said a government-commissioned review was needed to independently analyse the Migration Act and how it related to the commonwealth's responsibility to minors.
"Let's get some recommendations and then as parliamentarians sit around the table and work out how we can agree that kids don't belong in detention and what we're going to do to make sure that is the law," she said.
Lobby group GetUp welcomed the push for a review.
"Australians don't want to see children locked up in our detention system and that's why successive governments have promised to stop that happening," GetUp national director Simon Sheikh said.
"But there are now over 1000 children in our detention centres, and that number seems only to be increasing."
Source: News.com.au
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