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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
the NSW Association of Community Based Children's Services (NACBCS)
The National Association of Community Based Children's Services (NACBCS) represents long day care, preschool, occasional care and outside school hours care services that are community owned and managed. The members of NACBCS predominantly work in direct contact with children and families in the services and advocate for quality childcare services for young children.
NSW NACBCS is extremely concerned about the detention of children of asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors who are seeking asylum in Australia. A number of children have also been born in detention. Many of these children have spent years behind razor wire. This is not an appropriate environment for children. Detention of children contravenes the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child that states that no child should be held in detention.
The detention of these children clearly breaches other obligations of Australia as signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These include a child's right to family life, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, protection from all forms of physical or mental violence and the right to recover and be rehabilitated from neglect and abuse, the right to practise their culture, language and religion, the right to play and recreation and the right to education. Detention denies children access to these basic human rights and to social justice that is available to other children in Australia.
Reports from people who have visited children in detention centres over a number of years, such as Trish Highfield, and people who have worked in detention centres, such as Barbara Rogalla provide compelling evidence that detention is no place for children. Food is eaten only when given out, usually after standing in a queue. Infants and young children are placed in a physically harsh and restricted environment with razor wire, high fences and double gates. Children's daily experience is one of sirens and loudspeakers, routine waking by guards on night patrol and muster at any time of the day and night (Rogalla & Highfield, 2001).
There is inadequate space and facilities for safe play and development. For example playground equipment at Villawood is old, rusty, exposed to extreme temperatures and with no shade cloth or soft fall area - conditions that would not be allowed in a community child care facility (Highfield, 2001). Highfield notes that children in detention at Villawood lack stimulation and play equipment and instead occupy themselves by shaking the perimeter fence. Children in detention also have no access to trained child care staff who are qualified to develop appropriate programming for their care and education. These are not appropriate facilities for young children at a crucial stage of their development. Early brain research provides scientific evidence that during the first three years of life the brain develops to 90% of adult size and is extremely sensitive to environmental influences.
However, it is not enough to bring more play equipment and early childhood staff into detention centres. Detention is no place for children. In detention children are exposed to stress and trauma and to an institutional system that is inherently violent. They are exposed to detainees who are depressed, angry and often suicidal. The lack of privacy means that parents are unable to protect their children from witnessing the violence and despair of adults living with them. "Some children respond to this environment by showing signs of physical, social or psychological maladaptive behaviour" (Rogalla & Highfield, 2001:8) which will have long term detrimental effects on their mental wellbeing.
Refugee parents frequently experienced torture, imprisonment, persecution and institutional violence in the process of fleeing their country of origin. They arrive in Australia already suffering from stress and trauma. They experience further trauma and depression when they are placed in detention and suffer at the hands of a mechanistic and bureaucratic system (Rogalla & Highfield, 2001). Detention leads to a day to day mounting of stress and undermining of an individual's mental state (Silove, Steel and Mollica, in Rogalla & Highfield, 2001) caused by the nature of the detention environment.
Research clearly indicates that parents who suffer from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are unable to provide the sorts of interactions necessary to nurture children (Shore, 1997). The effects of institutionalisation further undermines parents' capacity to provide a positive, nurturing environment. Children need a safe, secure, stimulating environment in order to grow and learn. Detention does not provide children with any of these.
The first three years of life in particular are the time when a young child's brain is most vulnerable to disruptive and traumatising experiences (Shore, 1997). A key aspect of early social and emotional development is attachment. A secure attachment to caregivers is essential for emotional wellbeing. When detainees are moved from facility to facility, family members are separated it is difficult for children to form secure attachments.
Recommendations
We urge the Australian Government to meet its international obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to the children currently held in immigration detention and to new arrivals and to
- Release children and their families currently held in detention into the community and house newly arriving families and children in the community whilst their claims for refugee status are assessed.
- Maintain the best interests of the child in all actions concerning children of asylum seekers.
- Provide appropriate support services for children and families seeking asylum, including access to culturally and linguistically appropriate child care and health programs within the community as well as support to address stress and trauma.
References
Highfield, T. (2001). No play camp. Australian Children's Rights News, No. 28, March.
Rogalla, B. & Highfield, T. (2001). The systematic incarceration of children in immigration detention centres of Australia: A modern form of torture. Paper presented at the Children, Torture and other Forms of Violence conference, Tampere, Finland, 27 November - 2 December.
Shore, R. (1997). Rethinking the brain: New insights into early development. New York: Families at Work Institute.
Last Updated 10 October 2002.
