We won access to life-saving medicine for people in immigration detention.

Hepatitis C can be a deadly disease. If left untreated it can cause liver disease and liver cancer. Despite the dangers of the disease and the availability of a cure, asylum seekers, refugees and other people in immigration detention have been routinely denied access to treatment, with severe health outcomes.

In Australia in 2020, 7,990 people were diagnosed with hepatitis C and there were an estimated 423 hepatitis-C-related deaths. But effective medicines called direct acting antivirals (DAAs) are available and the Government has committed to eliminating hepatitis C by 2030.

DAAs cure 95% of infections, including 90% of infections where cirrhosis (severe scarring of the liver) is present. DAAs were added to the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme in 2016, meaning Australians in the community have affordable access to this safe, fast and effective treatment.

Fighting for the right to healthcare

Since 2016, our Asylum Seeker Rights project has sought to ensure people in immigration detention have access to adequate healthcare.

In 2018, we filed proceedings in the Federal Court on behalf of a person with hepatitis C in immigration detention who was being denied treatment. We sought access for our client to DAAs and compensation for the 4 years our client had suffered in detention while being denied medicine. After we filed, the Commonwealth agreed to provide our client with DAAs.

We also made complaints to the Commonwealth Ombudsman on behalf of 5 more people in immigration detention who were being denied treatment. And our 2018 report In Poor Health shone a spotlight on long-term government failure to provide hepatitis C antiviral therapy. It shared the stories of asylum seekers Nadim, Anas and Bijan, who lived with chronic hepatitis C but had access to treatments denied or unnecessarily delayed.

In March 2019, the Commonwealth finally committed to ensuring all detainees living with hepatitis C had access to DAAs.

Despite this policy win, barriers to antiviral treatment remain for people in immigration detention.

In March 2020, we filed proceedings in the Federal Court on behalf of Vincent, a client who requested treatment for hepatitis C soon after arriving at an immigration detention centre in 2018. Despite numerous requests, Vincent was not provided DAAs. We sought access to treatment and compensation. A month after we filed, Vincent was finally given access to DAAs.

As of August 2022, there were 14 people in immigration detention with hepatitis C and 9 people had not yet commenced treatment. Of the 9 people, the average time they had been waiting for treatment after diagnosis was 752 days.

The Australian Government has a duty of care to the people it detains. The failure to provide lifesaving hepatitis C medicine and ensure it is effectively distributed exposes the need for change. We argue for a legislative guarantee of a minimum standard of health care, equivalent to that available in the Australian community, so people in immigration detention do not have to fight for the treatment they need.

Further reading

The Guardian, ‘Man waits years for hepatitis C medication after immigration detention transfer’, 22 October 2019.

The Sydney Morning Herald, ‘’Real and tragic consequences’: asylum seekers left untreated for hepatitis C’, 12 June 2018.