Medical staff at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital are defying federal immigration authorities and refusing to return children in their care to detention.

Reports say the staff believe that discharging kids back into detention would be an inappropriate and unjust way to treat them, and would breach their commitment to keep people healthy and safe.

Senior RCH paediatricians, including Professor Paul Monagle, want the federal government to stop detaining children.

“Detention harms children, and the only way we can help them is to stop detention,” he said.

The staff have the backing of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and Victoria's health minister.

AMA vice-president Stephen Parnis says detention harms children.

“Every day the evidence is mounting,” he said.

“We're seeing evidence from individual doctors right though to published evidence now in studies that detention harms people, and the longer they are in detention, the more permanent that harm becomes,” Dr Parnis told AAP.

“[It] manifests itself mentally and physically with things like depressions, self-harm and profound anxiety through to things like failure to thrive - children who don't grow and develop in a way that's appropriate for their age because they are not in a secure environment.

“Any immigration detention that harms these children is a very poor reflection on us as a nation.”

AMA president Dr Brian Owler agrees.

“There is no reason why we should have children in detention,” he said in an interview on the Nine Network.

“We know from various reports, both through the Human Rights Commission, but through independent reports as well, that having children in detention is a form of abuse.

“It is harmful to them, both psychologically and physically, and that's been well-documented. And this country needs to get all of those children out of detention and back into a safe environment.”

Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy spoke out about the Border Force Act provisions that prohibit health care workers and immigration detention staff from talking about the abuses they see.

“I'm extremely proud to be the health minister in a state where its doctors and nurses are putting the interest of children first,” she told reporters on Sunday.

“If the staff of the RCH come to the clinical view that it is not in the interests of those children to go back into detention, then we will support them.”

The push to soften the immigration policy (and possibly stop torturing children) even has the support of LNP members like backbencher Russell Broadbent.

“Women and children in detention behind razor wire in this country or locked away on an island is unacceptable,” he told the ABC.

He said the hospital staff were making “an amazing statement”, which reflects the views of clinicians across the country.

“These people are not leftie activists,” he said.

“This organisation is the most revered organisation in Victoria bar none.”

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says immigration detention for children must stop.

“Every day children remain locked up; those children suffer and will continue to suffer for the rest of their lives,” she told reporters in Melbourne.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has told News Corp reporters that he does not support any changes in government policy.