HEAVILY pregnant immigration detainee Roqia Bakhtiyari was airlifted yesterday from Port Augusta hospital to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide in premature labour, refugee advocates claim.

Greens refugee spokeswoman Pamela Curr said Mrs Bakhtiyari, who was being detained in the Woomera housing project, was being watched last night by two guards in the hospital and was not allowed any visitors.

“The least this woman deserves is the sort of care and attention any woman giving birth needs,” Ms Curr said. “To be in a foreign country, where you don’t understand the language and you know your baby is being born prematurely, must be incredibly distressing.”

The Australian reported yesterday that immigration authorities intended to issue Australian travel documents to forcibly deport the Bakhtiyari family to Pakistan.

Mrs Bakhtiyari had refused to sign documents enabling her to be sent to Pakistan, but a spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said a way had been found around the problem.