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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
the Muslim Women's National Network of Australia
The Muslim Women's National Network of Australia (MWNNA) is a multicultural group of Muslim women who work for the empowerment of Muslim women in Australia and for the bringing about of understanding and mutual respect between Muslim communities and mainstream Australians.
Since December 2001 a number of MWNNA members have been visiting detainees at Villawood Immigration Detention Centre (VIDC) on a regular basis. The majority of our observations below are drawn from our members' experiences at VIDC, but we have also corresponded with and have received information from interested people working with asylum seekers and refugees in Queensland and Victoria.
Addressing the terms of reference:
1. The provisions made by Australia to implement its international human rights obligations regarding child asylum seekers, including unaccompanied minors.
In December 1990 Australia agreed to be bound by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. [1] Under the terms of the Convention, children are entitled to:
- Family life with their parents unless separation is in their best interests
- The highest attainable standard of health
- Protection from all forms of mental and physical violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, and the right to recover and be rehabilitated from neglect, exploitation, abuse torture, ill treatment and armed conflict.
- To practise their culture, language and religion
- To rest and play
- To primary education and different forms of secondary education which should be available and accessible to every child
- Appropriate protection and humanitarian assistance as an asylum seeker or refugee
- Not to be deprived of their liberty arbitrarily or unlawfully, and if in detention only in conformity with the law, as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.
Life with their parents unless separation is in their best interests
In the opinion of the Muslim Women's National Network of Australia (MWNNA) this provision of the convention has been breached with respect to large numbers of child detainees.
A normal family life is impossible within a detention centre
MWNNA has considerable doubts concerning whether 'family life' as it is normally understood in Australia can be meaningfully lived within the confines of a detention centre at all, since all the members of the family are subjected to the conditions of imprisonment. This makes it impossible for parents to perform normal family roles, such as taking up employment and making provision for the family, choice of dwelling, choice of foods, recreation and educational facilities.
Parents' normal relationship with their children is disrupted by detention. The detention authority (ACM) administering government policy makes decisions concerning children which in a normal family situation would be made by their parents. Parental authority is superseded by the authority of guards to direct children where to go, what to do and how to behave. Some decisions of the guards may be contrary to the views of parents as to what is in the interests of their children, but parents are powerless to counteract such decisions.
Mothers in detention are unable to decide sleeping arrangements for children, timing and content of meals and other everyday aspects of family living. They cannot guarantee security for their children or prevent them witnessing traumatic events involving other detainees. [2] Under such circumstances, normal family life is impossible.
Furthermore parents who are themselves anxious and depressed due to conditions of detention and the uncertainty of life in detention may be impaired in their ability to carry out parenting functions properly. Some parents in this situation may fail to meet the needs of their children.
Separation of children from one or both parents in detention
Some child detainees have been separated from one or both parents during the period of detention. In one case known to MWNNA the father of the family has been held in Port Headland while the mother and four children, including two teenage boys, have been moved to VIDC. Contact with the father is only by telephone and infrequent. The father is not able to play a very necessary role in the lives of the teenage boys. These boys in addition to experiencing the normal turmoil of adolescence have been exhibiting signs of depression and suicidal thoughts and clearly are in need of their father's guidance.
In another case reported in the media, [3] a father had been released from detention on a Temporary Protection visa, but his wife and five children, who arrived at a later date, had been detained in Woomera for 13 months. According to the media report, the husband had been able to speak to his family in brief telephone conversations only 8 times in 8 months. This family has no 'family life' to speak of and it appears that there are other families separated in the same way. [4]
There have been instances where children have been separated from their parents for mental health reasons. A [child ] was several times hospitalised for symptoms of post-traumatic stress which his parents blamed on his experiences in detention. He was placed in foster care but later [some of his family] were released from detention and he is now able to live with them, although his father remains in detention. In this case there is provision for the father to visit as it is not possible to take the child to the detention centre to visit his father as he becomes extremely upset at the sight of the detention centre. [5] Although the condition of this family has improved, they are still separated and their family life is far from normal.
In other cases, Immigration officials have intimated a willingness to allow teenage children to be released to foster-carers, thus separating them from both their mother and their father who remain in detention. Teenage children in detention pose particular problems (see below) and it is not always possible to find appropriate foster carers for them. In any event their parents know them best and it is MWNNA's opinion that the interests of such children are best served by releasing their parents (or at least the mother) to supervise their daily care. Foster parents may not have the same religious or cultural background or necessarily any experience in dealing with children of that age or with children who have experienced trauma, and have been in detention for long periods of time. [6] MWNNA submits that in cases of this nature, foster care is unnecessary since the interests of the children would be best served by being in their mother's care outside the detention centre so that they may attend school and have some semblance of a normal life.
Unaccompanied minors
Numbers of unaccompanied children, mostly teenage boys, have been released from detention centres. These children have no possibility of family life since their parents are not in Australia, and they must rely on a small amount of government funding, community assistance and their own resources to live. MWNNA submits that much more in the way of ancillary services should be provided to allow these children to manage life in Australia successfully.
The highest attainable standard of health
There have been several published studies of detainees' health.[7] Physical health care is the responsibility of Australasian Correctional Management the private contractor employed by the Australian government to manage the centres. This company, in turn, employs nurses and other health personnel as necessary. Detainees are assessed for health problems when first placed in detention and physical health problems are identified and treated (King & Vodicka).
At later stages of detention, detainees have complained that aspirin is handed out by ACM staff as a cure-all for every complaint, and that some detainee's medical needs have not been seen to promptly or at all. [8]
Smith [9] states that detention centres are a difficult environment for medical practitioners to work in and that they may not have training and experience in working with the survivors of trauma and torture. Additionally no procedures are in place for identifying people who may need specialist care and such people are not offered any special consideration with regard to early release. [10] The children of such people and children who come into contact with such people must be adversely affected.
MWNNA's major concerns lie in the field of the mental health of detained children. We have referred above to the detrimental effects of disruption of normal family life and separation from one or both parents in detention. Dr Aamer Sultan a medical doctor from Iraq who has himself been in detention since May 1999, has co-authored a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia concerning the detrimental effects of prolonged detention of the mental health of detainees. [11] In his report Dr Sultan listed separation anxiety, disruptive conduct, sleep disturbances, nightmares among the psychological effects of children in detention. He also mentioned that some children experience very serious psychological disturbances including mutism, stereotypic behaviours and refusal to eat or drink. Dr Sultan has provided a further updated report on the mental health of children in VIDC, a copy of which is annexed and marked 'A'.
MWNNA unreservedly accepts Dr Sultan's findings as set out in his above reports. MWNNA is most concerned that the mental health of detained children is suffering from the deleterious effects of :indefinite imprisonment, namely.
- Institutionalisation, especially in regard to the fact that some children have been kept continuously in detention for up to two years
- Breakdown of normal family roles and interactions as referred to above
- Mentally damaging environment of witnessing riots, self-harm including suicide attempts by other inmates and drastic measures adopted by management to control same, such as use of water cannon.
- Lack of education, recreation and meaningful activities in detention centres
- Lack of appropriate peer group support, for example a 12 year old boy in VIDC has no other child in his age group to play with and plays only with a 6 year old. Effective socialization requires that children be able to meet and play with other children of a similar age to their own.
- Anxiety and uncertainty as to future and success/failure of visa applications
- Physical and emotional conflict with guards
- Lack of appropriate trained counsellors - no paediatric psychologist available
There is the additional serious problem of asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia on a visa and have failed to apply for asylum under the '45 day rule' They are denied access to medical services also with potentially serious consequences for themselves and their children. MWNNA submits that all asylum seekers and refugees should have access to adequate medical services.
MWNNA submits that there can be no justification for the damaging of children's mental health in the above manner by prolonged periods of detention and that such detention breaches Australia's human rights obligations and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
2. The mandatory detention of child asylum seekers and other children arriving in Australia without visas, and alternatives to their detention.
MWNNA accepts that a short period of detention may be necessary to enable health and security checks to be carried out, but submits that current periods of detention are excessive and far beyond what is reasonable or necessary in the circumstances. Children's lives are being put 'on-hold' indefinitely and in they are being subjected to deprivation and abuse in detention.
MWNNA submits that no child should be held in detention for a period of longer than one or two weeks and should then be released to live in the community in the company of at least one parent. Such schemes are in place overseas, notably in New Zealand where all except one of the refugee families taken from the Tampa have been processed and released into the community. MWNNA understands that under Swedish law, no person under 18 may be held in detention for more than three days, or in extreme circumstances, six days.
3. The adequacy and effectiveness of the policies, agreements, laws, rules and practices governing children in immigration detention or child asylum seekers and refugees residing in the community after a period of detention, with particular reference to:
- The conditions under which children are detained
As referred to elsewhere in this submission, MWNNA believes that the conditions under which children are held in detention in Australia are totally unsatisfactory and totally unjustifiable. This applies equally to detention in the 'better' detention centres such as VIDC and to detention in remote desert areas such as Woomera, the conditions at which have been condemned by Human rights commissioners who have been able to inspect that centre. [12]
- Health, including mental health, development and disability
MWNNA submits that current policies, laws rules and practices governing children in detention are unsatisfactory with regard to the health, especially mental health of such children, as outlined above.
- Education
Children in detention
Education of children is clearly not up to the standard of education offered to children in the wider community, or even of children in criminal correctional facilities. Evidence is that the amount and quality of education varies between the various detention centres and from time to time at the same centre. [13] Provision of education is within the responsibilities of ACM and is not subject to supervision or quality control by the relevant state education departments. We note that ACM is a commercial enterprise which makes a profit out of its detention management activities and thus has an interest in providing services at minimum cost to itself.
At Villawood IDC, the situation seems to be that children under the age of 12 are given some education of up to, but not always as much as, 4 or 5 hours per day. We have been informed that a trained teacher is employed to provide this education during normal school terms. No provision is made in the holidays when children are left to occupy themselves as much as is possible within the confines of the detention centre. In accordance with departmental guidelines, this education emphasises English language skills. All primary aged children are taught in a composite class usually in a room dedicated for the purpose. Children of this age are given one excursion outside the centre each month.
No education or training is provided for children over 12, except that, according to some observers, [14] junior secondary aged children (approximately 12-14) may be allowed by the teacher to sit in on the primary classes and do whatever work can be found for them when the teacher is not otherwise busy with the younger children.
According to Dr Aamer Sultan [15] textbooks are very old, second hand and not necessarily appropriate. There are 3 computers which are also used by adults but no access to the Internet.
Any parent can testify to the problems which arise from leaving adolescent children, especially boys, unoccupied. In the normal world, adolescents are occupied with schoolwork and burn off their excess energy with competitive sport, part time jobs and household chores such as mowing the lawn or helping Mum and Dad. Adolescents in detention have none of these openings. Every day for them must be totally boring, unproductive and depressing. They have nothing to look forward to except a vague and very uncertain hope of release in the future.
Some attempts have been made by volunteers to teach children in detention. Dr Aamer Sultan notes that of a reported 30 groups who applied provide voluntary educational help and entertainment for the children, only one was approved by management after 10 months of processing. [16] Some volunteers persist by offering tuition at normal visiting times but this must be given in the open visitors' area with no special facilities. In general from the observations of MWNNA members, ACM's policies seem to be aimed at deterring visitors by subjecting them to long waits (up to 2 1/2 hours) excessive and inconsistent bureaucracy and security checks.
MWNNA submits that it is counterproductive in the extreme to keep adolescents in detention for long periods of time. It is a violation of the human rights of these children to deprive them of education and it means that if they are eventually released to live in Australian society, they will be very much disadvantaged in comparison with their peers who have had normal schooling and social interaction.
Children released from detention in the wider community
The majority of children released from detention will be released on Temporary Protection Visas. Under current government policies, these visas preclude the holders from accessing free English language lessons or from attending TAFE or university without payment of fees at the overseas student rate. There are very few, if any TPV holders who would have the financial means to pay these fees, so in practice, they are precluded from attending TAFE vocational training courses or other tertiary education.
The majority of children released from detention are found places in state or private schools whose parent bodies absorb the cost as a charity. Our information is that state governments would be entitled to charge up to $8000 per year in overseas student fees, but state governments and understanding school principals normally absorb the costs. [17]
Contrary to an opinion expressed by the Minister, Mr Ruddock, in response to a question from one of our members at a 'Community Consultation' in Sydney in February 2002 to the effect: "They don't get educated in their own countries so why should we pay for their education?" the reality appears to be that child asylum seekers have received a varying amount of education before arriving in Australia, are eager to learn, and many do learn at very quickly when given the opportunity. In relation to the boys in her 'Tiger 11 Refugee Soccer Club' in Queensland, Camilla Cowley reports: "Many boys have done amazingly well and some are in Year 12 this year. They want so much to go on to university…" [18]
MWNNA submits that there is a real risk of the creation of a sub-class within Australian society of TPV holders who are deprived of the educational facilities available to the rest of the community. This is unfair, discriminatory and will create further divisions in the community.
- Culture
MWNNA's comments under this heading are limited to religion as an aspect of culture. As a Muslim women's group this is a matter of concern to us, especially as the majority of current asylum seekers and refugees are Muslims from Iraq and Afghanistan, most of whom follow the Shia school of Islam.
In the past at VIDC, Muslim detainees were allowed the use of a building as a mosque. This permission was withdrawn when a number of detainees escaped by tunnelling under the floor of the building. Since then there have been no organised religious arrangements for Muslim inmates. Only the Catholics have been given permission to conduct religious services there. Muslim children are therefore receiving no religious instruction or education except what their parents might be able to manage.
MWNNA members met with members of the Immigration Detention Advisory Group on 4 March to request that a Shia Imam be permitted to visit VIDC regularly and conduct Friday congregational prayers.
MWNNA submits that detainees should be given access to appropriate religious advisers and facilities should be made available for children to receive appropriate religious education if their parents consent.
- Guardianship issues
Children in detention with parent(s)
Parents are the natural guardians of their children, but as mentioned above, in detention conditions, parents' functions are largely abrogated, and decisions made in respect of children by detention centre management and the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Such decisions are not always in the best interests of the children concerned.
Unaccompanied children
MWNNA understands that the Minister for Immigration is the legal guardian of unaccompanied child asylum seekers and refugees. MWNNA submits that the Minister is an inappropriate guardian for these children since his function as Immigration Minister creates a conflict of interest with the duties of a guardian to look after the well being of wards in his care. The present Minister has made public statements denigrating asylum seekers as 'queue jumpers' and 'illegals' and has put in place practices, namely mandatory detention in prison conditions, which are detrimental to the interests of children in his care.
The Minister is in charge of a publicly announced government policy of deterring future asylum seekers by harsh treatment of those who have managed to reach Australia. He is therefore not an appropriate person to be the guardian of children in this situation.
MWNNA submits that the guardianship of the Minister should be replaced by guardianship by a person independent of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, for example the Head of the relevant Child Protection agency in each state. Alternatively the Canadian practice of appointing a designated representative for each child refugee claimant should be adopted. This should apply whether the children are still in detention or have been released into the community.
- Security practices in detention
MWNNA submits that the physical appearance and management of detention centres is more appropriate to the imprisonment of high security prisoners rather than asylum seekers who have arrived without the appropriate documentation.
VIDC for example is situated in an unattractive industrial area. It is surrounded by high double chainwire fences, the internal fence topped by rolls of razor wire. Rolls of razor wire are also placed on the ground adjacent to the inside of the external fence. There are approximately 5 locked gates and doors to be negotiated before reaching the area where detainees are kept. Little attention has apparently been given to the grounds which are unkempt, bare and depressing. The overall appearance is depressing to well adjusted visitors who have not experienced any of the trauma experienced by many detainees, and must be much more depressing to detainees.
The centre is administered by ACM staff, who, we are informed, may be alternated between working in detention centres and in ordinary prisons. From our observations as visitors, some of these staff appear to be decent people just doing a job, others seem to regard it as their personal duty to discourage visitors, by subjecting them to unnecessarily long periods of queueing outside the fence, arbitrarily changing regulation as to what can or cannot be brought in, and arbitrary and unnecessary questioning. For example, spellings of detainees' names must be exactly as they appear on ACM's records (names transliterated from Arabic or Farsi may legitimately have a number of different spellings) It has been denied that certain detainees are in the centre and later discovered that they are there.
Detainees report that a few ACM staff go out of their way to make life as unpleasant as possible for detainees, by humiliating them, denying reasonable requests and even by physical abuse. One of our visitors personally witnessed a staff member pushing one of the teenage detainees. According to Dr Aamer Sultan many ACM staff treat teenage detainees as juvenile delinquents. [19]
According to detainees, incidents involving physical harm are hushed up or attributed to 'accidents.'
MWNNA submits that a company which is principally involved in the management of adult prisons should not be employed to manage detention centres because of the carry over of the prison management culture to the centres. Care should be taken not to employ individual staff members who have inappropriate attitudes towards detainees.
4. The impact of detention on the well-being and healthy development of children, including their long term development
MWNNA believes that prolonged detention has serious detrimental effects on the development of children. These detrimental effects range from deprivation of the normal sensory experiences important to early childhood to deprivation of education, recreation and normal social interaction experiences in older children.
Although child asylum seekers in detention have their basic needs for shelter, food and clothing met, MWNNA believes that these could be provided for much more satisfactorily (and at lesser cost) in the community where children could experience normal schooling, recreational activities and social interaction with an appropriate peer group from among mainstream children.
It is also necessary to consider the effects of the stigmatisation of asylum seekers and refugees as a class which has occurred because of the policies of the present government. Ministers have publicly designated these people as 'queue jumpers', 'illegals', 'potential terrorists' and people of a kind who are not wanted in Australia. MWNNA submits that this kind of labelling is extremely irresponsible, and is patently untrue. Unfortunately it has been accepted by a large section of the Australian population as has been taken by them as permission to express racist attitudes against not only asylum seekers and refugees but the whole Muslim population of Australia. This may have long term detrimental effects not only on children who are or have been in immigration detention but on the children of the Muslim population generally. A former adviser to the Minister, Mr Neville Roach has written that: "the asylum seeker controversy has unquestionably done serious damage to Australia's multicultural fabric." [20]
5. The additional measures and safeguards which may be required in detention facilities to protect the human rights and best interests of all detained children
Detainees have stressed that measures currently in place to provide independent review of detention conditions and practices are inadequate. They have stated that a pre-arranged 'walk-through' by a member of a committee appointed by the Minister in the company of the Centre Manager does not safeguard detainees' rights. Detainees need to have access to a truly independent person or body at times of their choice to report current incidents and concerns. Such a person or body should be ensured free access to the detention centre at all times and should not be subject to any bans or restrictions on their access to any detainees.
Detainees state that it is difficult to report abuses to outside independent authorities because detainees are not allowed to have mobile phones and the telephone may be monitored by ACM staff.
6. The additional measures and safeguards which may be required to protect the human rights and best interests of child asylum seekers and refugees residing in the community
Detainees released on Temporary Protection Visas are disadvantaged in the community. We have referred above to the restrictions on access to vocational and further education. The inability of TPV holders to access free English language classes sets them up for failure in any attempt to support themselves. Reasonable fluency in English is a prerequisite for obtaining employment in virtually any area in Australia. It is also a necessary for ordinary living skills such as the ability to negotiate with real estate agents for accommodation, understand the terms of a lease, obtain a driver's licence and for a multiplicity of everyday tasks. Without these skills a person is doomed to stay on welfare or obtain only the most menial of jobs.
The temporary nature of the Temporary Protection Visa is also an area of major concern. The TPV is issued for three years and an application must then be made for its renewal for a further period of three years and so on. This gives no security for holders who are subject to the possibility that at the end of any visa period they will be found no longer to qualify for refugee status, due to the government's current interpretation of world events. For example the Immigration Minister has recently stated that it is now safe to return asylum seekers to Afghanistan, despite advice from welfare agencies to the contrary.
MWNNA submits that holders of TPVs should become entitled to permanent visa status if it appears at the first review that it is unsafe for them to be returned to their former country.
MWNNA submits also that holders of TPVs should be allowed to access free English classes and other benefits available to permanent visa holders.
1. The Australian government should carefully observe all the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
2. Children should not be kept in detention for more than the minimum period necessary to conduct health and identity checks, and in any event, for not more than one or two weeks.
3. Children should not be separated from their parents or primary caregiver either in or out of detention.
4. An appropriate guardian - not the Minister for Immigration or his appointee - should be appointed for unaccompanied minors.
5. While MWNNA submits that children should not be held in detention at all except as mentioned above, if children continue to be detained as happens at present, the following submissions are made:
a) Much more care should be taken to prevent damage to the mental health of child detainees. A psychologist specializing in paediatrics should be available to assess child detainees and they should immediately be removed from detention if it appears that they are suffering damage to their mental health.
b) All children in detention must be given a proper education to the same standard as is enjoyed by children in the wider community.
c) All children in detention should be give appropriate recreation facilities and training.
d) Children in detention should be able to receive appropriate religious instruction if it is their parents' wish that they receive same.
e) More care should be taken to ensure that staff at detention centres treat detainees with courtesy and respect their human rights to the extent that staff should not assault, shout at or verbally abuse detained children or adults.
f) A fully independent complaints mechanism should be established to allow detainees to register complaints.
6. Children and their parents released from detention on Temporary Protection visas should have full access to normal migrant settlement services, especially free English classes and employment services. They should also have access to TAFE classes and further tertiary education on the same basis as other members of the community.
7. The Temporary Protection Visa system should be replaced by a system which gives holders some certainty about their ability to remain in Australia eg replacement by a permanent visa at the first review if it is still unsafe for the holder to return to their home country.
1.
HREOC National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, www.humanrights.gov.au
November 2001
2. Carmen Lawrence, "A plea for a little compassion
from a bleeding heart," Sydney Morning Herald, 25.1.02
3. The Sun-Herald, 10.2.2002, pp 1, 10-11
4. Ibid.
5. Personal communication from the child's step-mother,
4 .3.02
6. Approximately 2 years in the cases of two families
known to MWNNA members.
7. Eg King & Vodicka (www.mja.com.au/175_12_171201/king/king.html),
M.M.Smith (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201/smith/smith.html),
Harris & Telfer (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201/harris/harris/html),
Sultan & O'Sullivan, "Psychological disturbances in asylum seekers
held in long term detention: a participant/observer account" (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201/sultan/sultan.html
Steele & Silove, (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201//html
8. MWNNA is aware of one young woman who gave birth in
detention and who stated that she had still not had a post-natal check
up nine months later.
9. Op cit n 7
10. Steele & Silove, op cit
11. Sultan & O'Sullivan (n 7)
12. Professor Alice Tay AM & Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM
media release on conditions at Woomera IDC 5.2.2002
13. See Dr Aamer Sultan's report on education at VIDC
annexure 'A'
14. Sr Helen Barnes, RC Church, visitor to detention
centre
15. Ibid
16. Ibid
17. Personal communication from Gaby Heuff, Co-ordinator
at the Refugee Claimants Support Centre in Brisbane, 17.2.2002
18. Personal communication from Camilla Cowley 18.2.2002
19. op cit
20. "Leadership minus compassion is tearing us apart,"
Sydney Morning Herald, 25.1.02
