New procedures for transferring relevant transitory persons for medical purposes come into effect from Saturday 2 March, 2019.
The new arrangements require the Minister to make a decision on whether to transfer a relevant transitory person to Australia from a regional processing country for medical assessment or treatment.
A person will be a relevant transitory person only if they are in a regional processing country on the date the legislation commenced, or if they are born in a regional processing country.
There must also be an opinion from a treating doctor that:
- the person requires medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment; and
- the person is not receiving appropriate medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment in the regional processing country; and
- it is necessary to remove the person from a regional processing country for appropriate medical or psychiatric assessment or treatment.
If two or more treating doctors notify the Secretary of the Department that a person meets these requirements, then the Secretary must notify the Minister as soon as practicable. The Minister must then make a decision to approve, or refuse to approve, the person's transfer to Australia.
Treating doctors can notify the Secretary for a medical transfer by completing the
Notification of relevant transitory person for medical transfer form. See a
sample (55KB PDF) of the online form.
