Baby Asha is living in a tent on Nauru, five months after she was born in Australia. Source: Supplied

Asha, whose pixelated face appeared on placards at snap rallies in Melbourne and Sydney this week, sleeps on a wet mattress. Her tent leaks “constantly”, according to her family’s lawyers.

She has trouble feeding and there and mosquitos everywhere, but Asha’s mum refuses to use the government-supplied mosquito net. It’s sprayed with chemicals, she says.

There’s no running water, there’s the constant threat of communicable disease and there are security guards watching over them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s suicide watch for asylum seekers.

This is the reality on Nauru — and it’s no place for a five-month-old girl.

Doctors and nurses who look after Asha and the other 80-odd children on Nauru have her interests at heart. But they too have been compromised by changes to the Border Force Act, enacted on Wednesday, forbidding them from talking to the media about patient care.

The boats have stopped, but at what cost?

Nauru, from above. Source: Supplied

‘IT’S SIMPLE: NAURU DETENTION IS NO PLACE FOR BABIES’

Asha made history last month. On June 4, she became the first infant born in detention in Australia to be transferred to the Nauru Regional Processing Centre after the Federal Government changed the Migration Act.

Her mother, Abhaya, had previously been transferred from Nauru to Darwin to give birth. Four months later she was transferred again from Darwin to Melbourne before her “forced” removal to Nauru.

Her family’s former case worker told Fairfax media last month “officers burst into their room” at a Melbourne immigration detention centre and “forcibly moved them”.

Asha’s father Vijay and her mother were handcuffed for the 16-hour journey and separated for as long as five hours from their daughter.

Advocates say the beautiful five-month-old girl was “thriving” in Australia but the stress on her mother after the move has made it impossible to breast feed.

“She’s totally lost her milk,” Asylum Seeker Resource Centre detention rights advocate Pamela Curr told news.com.au.

Ms Curr, who received correspondence from Abhaya on Wednesday this week, said the young mother and her husband were contemplating suicide.

“She said to me ‘my husband has gone completely mad, he wants to die’ and ‘I want to die too, except for my baby’.”

Asha and her family were placed in a part of the regional processing centre known as Area 9. That area had been declared “potentially catastrophic” months earlier in a report by Save the Children, a group contracted to provide welfare services on Nauru.

The risk assessment, according to The Guardian, recommended in the strongest terms against the transfer of babies back to that part of the centre.

“It’s terrible,” Ms Curr said.

“They’re in a tent being watched over by Australian, New Zealand and Nauruan officials all the time. People keep popping their head in and saying: ‘You’re better aren’t you?’”

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young, who was “watched” by security officials during a visit to Nauru earlier this year, said baby Asha’s situation was “horrific”.

“Baby Asha was born here in Australia, on Australian soil and in an Australian hospital. She and her family should never have been deported to Nauru to be locked up in detention,” Ms Hanson-Young told news.com.au.

“This five month old baby is no harm to anyone; she should have been allowed to stay here in Australia while her parents claim for refugee protection is processed.

“On the back of evidence of child abuse and harm at the hand of guards inside the centre, the Government should immediately stop deportations of children and women to Nauru.

“The Nauru camp is not fit for children, let alone a newborn baby. It is a tent prison in the middle of a phosphate mine. The immigration minister’s own health expects and children protection advisors have all said that children should not be detained in the Nauru camp - but he continues to ignore their advice.”

Kelsey Cooke, the head of campaigns at GetUp! said Australians would be shocked if they knew what was really going on.

“Baby Asha is a pretty tragic situation. A child is suffering. Many Australians wouldn’t know it’s happening,” she told news.com.au.

“Doctors and nurses are saying it amounts to abuse.”

Those same doctors and nurses won’t be saying that for long if the government gets its way.

Regional Processing Centre 3, for families and pregnant women. Picture: Craig Thompson Source: Supplied

DOCTORS, NURSES, TEACHERS SIGN OPEN LETTER

The Federal Government’s Border Force Act changed on Wednesday with the addition of a new provision effectively silencing doctors and nurses from speaking out about patient care.

The changes mean “entrusted persons” could be sentenced to a two-year jail sentence for challenging authority.

In an open letter to the prime minister, doctors, nurses and teachers wrote: “We have advocated, and will continue to advocate, for the health of those for whom we have a duty of care, despite the threats of imprisonment, because standing by and watching substandard and harmful care, child abuse and gross violations of human rights is not ethically justifiable.

“There are currently many issues which constitute a serious threat to the health of those in detention for whom we have a duty of care. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is aware of these problems and has for years failed to address them adequately.”

President of the Australian Medical Association in NSW Professor Brian Owler told Lateline on Tuesday night: “This law is designed to intimidate people against speaking out. There is no reason why doctors, nurses and other health care workers should be stopped from speaking up about concerns that they have for the care of their patients whether they’re detainees or anybody else in our society”.

Earlier, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told parliament the provision “provides assurance to industry and our domestic and international law enforcement partners that sensitive information provided to the Australian Border Force will be appropriately protected”.

ACTIVISM TAKING HOLD IN CAPITAL CITIES, ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Hundreds of people gathered in Sydney on Tuesday night and in Melbourne a week earlier holding balloons marked with the message: ‘Bring Back Asha’.

On social media, they also showed their support.

“Reading the #BringBackAsha posts are making me ill,” one user wrote on Twitter.

“There is something dark going on in the heart of this nation and it has to do with children,” another wrote.

A spokesperson from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection said medical staff had “no concerns” about baby Asha’s wellbeing.

“She has regular check-ups with International Health and Medical Services medical staff including a GP and a midwife.

“The baby is in good health and being cared for by her parents.

“The mother, father and baby are accommodated in appropriate facilities for their circumstances.

“On 16 June 2015, a leak was identified in the roof of the marquee in which the family are accommodated. The leak was repaired and the family provided with clean, dry mattresses and linen. The family have not made any further complaints in regard to their accommodation.”

In a statement provided to news.com.au, the Department said:

“Transferees who have been brought to Australia from a regional processing centre (RPC) for medical reasons are clearly informed, prior to their departure and while accommodated on the mainland that they will be returned to the RPC once their medical treatment is completed and they are declared fit to travel.

“This family was assessed as medically fit to transfer to Nauru RPC.

“All transferees at the Nauru Regional Processing Centre are provided with appropriate and coordinated support services, including accommodation, clothing, food and welfare and medical services.”

A Dateline investigation reveals appalling conditions inside Nauru and Manus detention centres with new images and damning whistleblower accounts.