Ten refugees and asylum seekers who had been held in isolation in a hotel complex in Brisbane for the past four days have now been released into community detention there.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The ten are the first medical transfers from Australian offshore processing centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea to be granted community detention since February this year.
The Refugee Action Coalition says the ten single men were transferred from Nauru to Darwin in early September for medical treatment but that has yet to be provided.
Ian Rintoul of the Coalition says community detention is welcome news for these ten individuals but another 15 people, including families, transferred from Nauru for medical treatment last February, remain in detention in Darwin.
Another 11 single men, transferred from Nauru on 25 September, are still held in other mainland detention centres.
Mr Rintoul says this "must be the first step to releasing everyone who has been transferred from Nauru and PNG."