By Andra Jackson
May 26, 2005
The Age

Like any new mother, Hoai Thu Nguyen proudly keeps her new-born son by her side in bed - but can't stop crying at the thought that he could grow up in detention.

Michael Andrew Tran, born on Monday night in a Perth hospital to asylum seekers detained for two years on Christmas Island, is Australia's newest detainee.

He was born as his mother was under 24-hour guard, the guards posted outside the delivery room.

Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday the baby would not be forced to live in detention on Christmas Island, but Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said that he would - before a department official informed Parliament that baby and mother both would return to community accommodation.

Refugee advocate Kaye Bernard, the only outside person allowed to visit Ms Nguyen, said that this was still detention as there were two guards at the Perth house and the couple were not allowed outside or to have visitors.

Speaking through a translator, Ms Nguyen said detention would inevitably have a negative effect on her son as it has had on her. "I feel detention is very strange in itself," she said.

"I'm anxious all the time and it makes me feel abnormal.

Ms Nguyen, who had a difficult birth, said having two guards by her hospital room 24 hours a day made her feel uncomfortable. "I feel scared and anxious and I wish my husband was allowed to stay overnight with me (in hospital)."

Ms Nguyen was taken into detention with 53 other Vietnamese intercepted off Port Hedland on July 1, 2003. She had fled Vietnam after her husband, Minh Dat, attracted attention for publicly advocating democracy. "I don't know why my family and the other asylum seekers have been treated so badly by the Australian Government," she said.