Both the Australian Medical Association and the World Medical Association have lobbied the government to wind back the Border Force Act secrecy provision. Doctors working in immigration detention are challenging the government’s contentious Border Force Act in the high court for their right to speak out publicly on behalf of the refugees and asylum seekers they treat. Lawyers from the Fitzroy Legal Service, working on behalf of Doctors 4 Refugees, will file a case in the high court Wednesday morning, challenging section 42 – the secrecy provision – of the Border Force Act. Australians have a right to know the damage that is being inflicted in their name on innocent people, including children.”Phatarfod said the Border Force Act even affected doctors ostensibly uninvolved in the immigration detention system. Section 42 carries a two-year jail term for any “entrusted person” – anybody who works within the immigration detention system – who makes an “unauthorised disclosure” about conditions in the camps.

Source: The Guardian July 26, 2016 13:52 UTC