Turnbull government has signed an agreement to send people in need of emergency medical care in Nauru to TW.
The undisclosed arrangement was designed to prevent them from applying to stay in Australia after being treated in a local hospital.
Fairfax media learned that Australia had signed a memorandum of understanding with TW in September and that TW was not a signatory to the 1951 refugee Convention. So far, five refugee have flown 5500 km to Taipei to receive high-level care.
The agreement has not been made public before. In recent months, a 55-year-old Iranian woman who needs major heart surgery is one of those who returned to Nauru after TW treatment.
A 63-year-old Afghan man who reportedly died of lung cancer refused to go to TW for hospice care and asked to come to Australia. This week the federal court accepted the argument of a 30-year-old Samoan pregnant woman that she needed a higher standard of care from Australian hospitals rather than TW.
The woman needs an abortion but has complications because she was circumcised when she was a child.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed that the agreement with TW was signed in September last year and that "a number of individuals have returned to Nauru after receiving treatment at TW."
"the government makes it clear that people who receive medical treatment outside the country are not allowed to stay in Australia," she said. "Medical transfer is not a way to come to Australia." Government never announced the memorandum of understanding and declined to disclose it on Friday.
TW is considered to have a good medical system. A spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs said TW "has always had the best hospitals and medical skills in the world."
TW has long provided assistance and humanitarian assistance to Nauru. It is reported that Australia has sought medical transfer assistance from a number of countries, but only TW signed agreements with Turnbull government.
