Refugee baby at center of Australian hospital protest released into community following government backdown

An infant asylum seeker at the centre of protests by Australian refugee activists has been released into community detention in Brisbane after medical practitioners refused to discharge the baby for fear she would be returned to Nauru.

Australian immigration minister Peter Dutton on Monday confirmed the one-year-old child, known only as Baby Asha was transferred from Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane following a 10-day protest outside the hospital.

"She's in community detention and obviously the support will be provided to the family," Dutton told local broadcaster Nine Network.

Doctors at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane had refused to release the one-year-old girl after completion of her treatment for serious burns. Baby Asha was flown from Australia's offshore processing center on Nauru for treatment last month.

Dutton stressed that the family could still be returned to the centre - widely criticised for its harsh conditions and reports of sexual abuse - on Nauru once medical assessments and legal issues were finalised, likely causing more protests and further pressure on the federal government's asylum seeker policy.

The issue of asylum and refugee policy remains a hot button local political issue which is due to intensify as the country heads to an election later in the year.

"People will go back to Nauru," Dutton later told the ABC.

"In the interim, we will make an assessment case by case as to whether or not it's safe for the family to live in the community."

Though the number of asylum seekers trying to reach Australia pales in comparison to those arriving into Europe, the government maintains those wishing to reach the mainland will instead be controversially taken to one of two offshore processing centers on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

The controversial policy was adopted in mid-2013, aimed at stemming the flow of asylum seeker boat arrivals by people smugglers following a spate of tragic deaths at sea from unseaworthy vessels from Indonesia to Australia.

Authorities stress asylum seekers arriving by boat will not be resettled in Australia.

Dutton also rejected calls to take up an offer from New Zealand to resettle up to 150 asylum seekers after Australia's high court last month rejected a test case that challenged the right to deport 267 refugees and their families who had been brought for medical treatment from Nauru.

New Zealand Prime Minister, during his visit to Sydney last week, reiterated it was "potentially possible" for the refugees to be transferred across the Tasman citing an agreement with the former Gillard government, which Dutton rejects.

"The deal that was struck was a back-door option to come to Australia," Dutton said.

"It was a failed proposal under Julia Gillard and that is why it is not acceptable to us in the form that Julia Gillard brokered it."Enditem