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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
United Nations Association of Australia Inc, Tasmanian Branch
Background
1. UNAA Tasmania records its support for the submission submitted by the Executive Committee of the United Nations Association of Australia (Inc.)2. Recognises the obligations of the Australian Federal Government as a signatory, on 22nd August, 1990, to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as at 15th October 1996 (187), this coming into force on 16th January 1991.
3. Recognises that Federal and State Governments have legislation and policies in the fields of health, education and welfare to protect the rights of children in Australia in accord with this Convention on the Rights of the Child.
4. Also recognises that the Federal Government, in implementing its Refugee Policies, has failed to provide for the rights of refugee children and their families who are detained in Detention centres, due to their method of entry into Australia..
5. These we shall refer to as “Asylum Seekers” to distinguish them from Refugees who are processed off-shore and admitted as Legal Refugees.
Submissions
1. We submit that the Federal Government’s policy towards the Asylum Seekers since 11th September has associated them with “would-be terrorists” and as the products of “people traffickers” created suspicion, fear and mistrust in a significant portion of the Australian Community. This allowed them to treat these people as criminals, rather than as desperate people escaping the intolerable situations in their countries of origin. In this policy there was no distinction between families with children or unaccompanied children.
2. We submit that the use of the terms “queue jumpers” and “illegal immigrants’
and reports of “children being thrown overboard’ fuelled fear and resentment against these people, which enabled the Government to get unilateral political support for its policies for confinement of these people (including the children)in prison-like facilities and to ignore their rights under the Refugee Convention and the rights of “refugee children” to “appropriate and humanitarian assistance in the enjoyment of applicable rights set forth in the present Convention and in other international human rights or humanitarian instruments to which the said States are Parties”. (Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.)
3. We further submit that the rights for the children “not to be separated from their parents, except by competent authorities for their well being” was not respected in some cases when detainees in Detention Centres were prevented from joining family members already legally in Australia and where children were fostered into the community, for their “well-being” while their parents remained in detention. In these cases the parents should have been “assisted to provide appropriate direction and guidance in the exercise by the child of the rights recognised in the of the Convention. (Articles 5 and 10 of Convention on the Rights of the Child.).
4. We submit that for the Government to honour its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Children, they have regard for Article 3 which provides for “all action taken by …legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be the primary consideration” and that “State Parties undertake to ensure the child such protection and care as is necessary for his or her well-being.5. We submit that parents and children should have been placed in an environment which provided for the welfare of the children under the terms of the Convention on the Rights of the Child with regard to access to health, education and recreation facilities (Articles 24 and 31).
6. We submit that with regard to the education of the children, their lessons should focus on learning English, learning about the Australian environment and the social norms of the people, and such other learning as would assist them to fit into a regular school if and when they were accepted as “legal refugees”. Their parents also would benefit from education on health issues and child care practices in this country.
7. We submit that reports of the effect of the conditions of detention on detainees have caused psychological trauma and physical and mental health problems particularly for the children (classified as below 18 years of age). Article 37(a) of the Convention of the Rights of the Child provides that “no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and Article 37 (b) provides for detention to be “used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. Article 37 (c) provides for “Every child deprived of liberty to be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person”.
We believe that these conditions have not been adhered to within the detention centres and point out that Article 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child makes the State Parties responsible to “take all appropriate measure to promote the physical and psychological recovery and social re-integration of a child victim of any form or neglect, or abuse, torture or any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” and that “such recovery and re-integration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.”
Recommendations
The UNAA Tasmania recommends:
(a) That the Federal Government makes every effort bring the treatment of children and their families into compliance with the conditions of the Convention for the Rights of the Child.
(b) That it implements and carries out a policy of uniting families and not sending back mothers and children whose immediate family members are already in this country.
(c) That programmes be implemented to redress the physiological and psychological damage suffered by children and their families due to the conditions in detention centres.
d) We also recommend that opportunity be taken to explain the laws in Australia regarding the practice of Female Genital Mutilation and the health reasons for these to all refugees coming from .countries where FMG is practiced.
e) That Community Programmes be funded to restore the reputation and credibility of these Asylum Seekers to assist with their integration into the Community when they become recognised as Refugees under the terms of the Convention for Refugees.
f) That the United Nations be consulted about the conditions in countries to which the Government intends to return any of these Asylum Seekers, to ascertain the conditions there and the safety of the returnees.
UNAA Tasmania
Hobart
April, 2002
