International Health and Medical Services

Last updated

International Health and Medical Services
TypePrivately held company
IndustryMedical services
PredecessorSydney International Medical Clinic Pty Ltd
Founded30 March 2000;21 years ago (2000-03-30) in Sydney, Australia
Headquarters
Sydney
ProductsMedical services and health care in immigration detention
Parent International SOS
Website www.ihms.com.au

International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) provides primary and mental health care services within the Australian immigration detention network under a contract with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. It is a subsidiary of International SOS. [1]

Contents

IHMS traded as International Health And Medical Services Pty Ltd from 24 November 2003 and was initially registered as Sydney International Medical Clinic Pty Ltd in 30 March 2000. [2]

Locations

Outside Australian territory

Transit accommodation

Standard of care

Concerns have been documented about the standard of care provided. [1] Poor coordination between the Government of Australia and IHMS have been noted to contribute to poor outcomes for people in detention.

There have been questions about deaths in detention related to medical care, particularly:

Related Research Articles

Serco British company

Serco Group plc is a British company with headquarters based in Hook, Hampshire, England. Serco primarily derives income as a contractor from the provision of government services, most prominently in the sectors of health, transport, justice, immigration, defence, and citizens services.

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of 2,100 km2 (810 sq mi), measuring around 100 km × 30 km. Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles which can be broadly described as lowland tropical rain forest. The highest point on Manus Island is Mt. Dremsel, 718 metres (2,356 ft) above sea level at the centre of the south coast. Manus Island is volcanic in origin and probably broke through the ocean's surface in the late Miocene, 8 to 10 million years ago. The substrate of the island is either directly volcanic or from uplifted coral limestone.

Peter Dutton Australian politician

Peter Craig Dutton is an Australian Liberal Party politician who has been Minister for Defence and Leader of the House since March 2021 and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dickson since 2001. Dutton previously served in numerous Cabinet roles under the Howard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison Governments, including as Minister for Home Affairs from 2017 to 2021.

Pacific Solution

The Pacific Solution is the name given to the Government of Australia policy of transporting asylum seekers to detention centres on island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland. Initially implemented from 2001 to 2007, it had bipartisan support from the Coalition and Labor opposition at the time. The Pacific Solution consisted of three central strategies: thousands of islands were excised from Australia's migration zone or Australian territory, the Australian Defence Force commenced Operation Relex to intercept vessels carrying asylum seekers and the asylum seekers were removed to detention centres in Nauru and on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, while their refugee status was determined. A number of pieces of legislation enabled this policy. The policy was developed by the Howard Government in response to the Tampa affair in August 2001 and the Children Overboard affair, and was implemented by then Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on 28 September before the 2001 federal election of 24 November.

Australian immigration detention facilities comprise a number of different facilities throughout Australia. They are currently used to detain people who are under Australia's policy of mandatory immigration detention. Asylum seekers detected in boats in Australian waters have been detained in facilities on the offshore islands of Nauru and Manus Island, previously under the now defunct Pacific Solution and under Operation Sovereign Borders.

Nauru Regional Processing Centre former offshore Australian immigration detention facility

The Nauru Regional Processing Centre was an offshore Australian immigration detention facility in use from 2001 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2019, located on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru and run by the Government of Nauru. The use of immigration detention facilities is part of a policy of mandatory detention in Australia.

Lorengau Lorengau Town in Manus, Papua New Guinea

Lorengau is the major town in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. The town is located on the edge of Seeadler Harbour on Manus Island, in the Admiralty Islands, and in 2000 Lorengau was recorded to have a population of 5,829.

The Australian government has a policy and practice of detaining in immigration detention facilities non-citizens not holding a valid visa, suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorised arrival, and those subject to deportation and removal in immigration detention until a decision is made by the immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of origin/passport. Persons in immigration detention may at any time opt to voluntarily leave Australia for their country of origin, or they may be deported or given a bridging or temporary visa.

Christmas Island Detention Centre Australian immigration detention facility

Christmas Island Immigration Reception and Processing Centre or commonly just Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, is an Australian immigration detention facility located on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The centre closed in 2018.

Paul Joseph StevensonOAM is an Australian psychologist.

Maribyrnong Immigration Detention Centre was an Australian immigration detention facility in Maribyrnong, Victoria. The centre was originally opened in 1966, as the Maribyrnong Migrant Hostel, then later the Midway (Migrant) Hostel in the late 1960s. The Phillip Migrant Hostel was added later. It closed on 31 December 2018.

Asylum in Australia has been granted to many refugees since 1945, when half a million Europeans displaced by World War II were given asylum. Since then, there have been periodic waves of asylum seekers from South East Asia and the Middle East, with government policy and public opinion changing over the years.

West Kimberley Regional Prison is an Australian prison near Derby in the Kimberley region of north-western Western Australia. It was established in August 2012. The prison is designed to house 120 male and 30 female Aboriginal prisoners.

Reza Barati was a 23-year-old asylum seeker who was killed during rioting at the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRPC), Papua New Guinea, on 17 February 2014. An Iranian Kurd, he had arrived in Australia on 24 July 2013 – just five days after the PNG solution was announced – and was sent to Manus Island in August.

Manus Regional Processing Centre

The Manus Regional Processing Centre, or Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (MIRCP), was one of a number of offshore Australian immigration detention facilities. The Centre was located on the PNG Navy Base Lombrum on Los Negros Island in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea.

<i>Migration Act 1958</i>

The Migration Act 1958 is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system. Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and presence in, Australia of aliens, and the departure or deportation from Australia of aliens and certain other persons."

Behrouz Boochani Kurdish-Iranian writer, filmmaker, and asylum seeker

Behrouz Boochani is a Kurdish-Iranian journalist, human rights defender, writer and film producer. He was held in the Australian-run Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea from 2013 until its closure in 2017. He remained on the island before being moved to Port Moresby along with the other detainees around September 2019. On 14 November 2019 he arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand on a one-month visa, to speak at a special event organised by WORD Christchurch on 29 November, as well as other speaking events. In December 2019, his one month visa to New Zealand expired and he remained on an expired visa until being granted refugee status in July 2020, at which time he became a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Canterbury.

Paladin Group, also known as Paladin Solutions, Paladin Holdings and Paladin Solutions Group, is a security and project services contractor which operates in South East Asia, Australia and Oceania.

Canstruct is a facilities management, construction, and service provision company based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, with operations in the Pacific region.

References

  1. 1 2 Roger Cohen, (20 December 2016), Australia’s Brave Whistleblower Nurse, New York Times Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  2. "Historical details for ABN 40 073 811 131 | ABN Lookup". abr.business.gov.au. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  3. Doherty, Ben (10 December 2016). "Hamid Kehazaei's last days – a timeline". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  4. Doherty, Ben (28 November 2016). "Hamid Kehazaei inquest: asylum seeker needed urgent transfer, medical staff agreed". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  5. Ben Doherty, (26 December 2016), Refugee pleaded with doctors on Manus Island for help before his death, The Guardian. Retrieved 28 December 2016.

Official website