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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
Odette Waanders
National Inquiry into Children
in Immigration Detention
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 1042
Dear Sir/Madam
Attached please find my submission to this Inquiry. It expresses my concerns as a private citizen with the current detention and treatment of refugee children.
As a result of my concerns on this issue, I recently joined Amnesty International in an endeavour to bring about changes that will result in a more humanitarian treatment of refugees. However, the views expressed in this submission are my own.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this important issue and for extending the deadline so that more Australians could express their views.
Yours sincerely,
Odette Waanders
The Detention of Children
The current lack of access to detention centres by members of the public, the media, human rights groups and international representatives makes it difficult to obtain evidence on the situation of children in detention and its effects on their wellbeing.
This lack of access, in itself, indicates the Australian Government's unwillingness to expose the treatment of children in detention to independent scrutiny or quality assurance.
The use of a closed system of detention is part of a systematic attempt to dehumanise refugees and asylum seekers. It seeks to diminish the capacity of the wider community to respect the human dignity of asylum seekers, to recognise their needs and to respond to them with care and compassion. It prevents and undermines independent public scrutiny of the detention and treatment of refugees.
As a signatory to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, Australia is obligated to ensure that in all actions concerning children, their best interests shall be a primary consideration. This would require
- ongoing active consideration of the child's best interests, having regard to all their human rights and needs
- the creation of conditions and the provision of services and opportunities that actively promote the child's best interests.
Active consideration of the child's best interests requires a willingness to allow independent assessments of the effects of the situation on a child and whether or not it is in the child's best interests. The current closed system of detention actively prevents this.
Nor does the current system of detention create the conditions conducive to the best interests of the child. It is an abnormal environment that restricts the child's freedom and opportunity to participate in the normal life of the community. It is imprisonment.
The dehumanisation of refugees is reflected in the dehumanising process of detention, which exacerbates the trauma and hardship they have already experienced. These people need a rehabilitative environment, not a traumatising one.
In the context of such a closed system of detention, recent evidence of the ill effects of the inhumane treatment of refugees in detention centres is but the tip of the volcano. The eruptions of riots, hunger strikes and self-abuse are visible cries for help from people who are effectively held incommunicado.
The Government has systemmatically tried to conceal or reinterpret evidence of the conditions in which children are held in detention and the effects on their wellbeing. It has demonised the behaviour of refugees in order to deflect responsibility for the ill-effects of the detention conditions in which they are held.
However, the limited evidence available indicates that treatment of children held in detention centres is not in their best interests:
- They are located in harsh and isolated environments, where the culture is one of control not care.
- Medical, education and recreational services appear to be minimal.
- They are not protected from assault by the authorities responsible for protecting them. For example, a 13 year old detainee was assaulted by three Woomera security guards dressed in riot gear because he would not divulge the names of other detainees creating a disturbance. These guards were subsequently reinstated. (The Age, 20 April 2000)
- HREOC officers visiting Woomera found psychological trauma among the children - evidenced by lip sewing, slashing, ingestion of shampoo, attempted hanging, threats of self harm and suicidal thoughts.
It is impossible to imagine how any Government or person could consider that holding children in such conditions could be in their best interests, or could be justified in any way.
Health Services
The limited evidence available indicates that the Australian Government has failed to provide adequate health care to refugee children and is, in fact, contributing to their psychological ill-health by holding them in detention centres where conditions exacerbate previous trauma and inhibit rehabilitation.
Refugees have undergone traumatic experiences including the fear or experience of persecution and torture, physical hardship and grief. Our immediate response on their arrival in Australia should be humanitarian.
We should provide immediate access to comprehensive health assessments, care, treatment and rehabilitation services by appropriately trained professionals with access to cultural advisors and translators. These services should be tailored to the specific needs of children and be fully funded by the Australian Government as part of its humanitarian commitment to refugees.
As most refugees who arrive in Australia remain here indefinitely, it is also in Australia's best interests to ameliorate the effects of the trauma they have undergone. The current system of detention will leave a legacy of enduring psychological damage, ill health and alienation that is not in the best interests of refugees or the wider Australian community, or consistent with Australia's moral and legal obligations to children or refugees.
The most effective way of protecting refugee children from harm is to provide a caring and nurturing environment that proactively meets their needs and minimises the effects of the trauma they have experienced. The correctional culture and environment of current detention centres are completely inappropriate and serve to re-traumatise rather than rehabilitate refugees.
Education
The current system of detention has failed to provide appropriate education services to refugee children. Mr Ruddock, in an interview on 7.30 Report in April 2002, acknowledged the difficulty of providing appropriate education to groups of children with very diverse needs in isolated detention centres.
Any detention of refugee children should only be as a last resort, for a very short duration, where it is in their best interests and uses a rehabilitative approach. In this context, education services should assist refugee children to understand and cope with their situation, to learn about the Australian context, and to prepare them for settlement and participation in the community.
Refugee children should be able to attend schools in the community. In selecting the most appropriate school, consideration should be given to cultural needs and links, gender issues, and the capacity of the school to meet their special needs. Funding for children with special needs should include children who are refugees.
Recommendations
Last Updated 30 June 2003.1. The mandatory detention of refugee children should be abolished immediately.
2. Any detention of refugee children should be as a last resort, for the shortest duration possible and provided in a way that promotes their best interests.
3. Any centres in which refugee children are detained should be accessible by members of the public, the media, human rights groups and international representatives.
4. The philosophy and modus operandi of time-limited detention centres must change radically. They should operate as rehabilitation and care centres, not as correctional services. The management and provision of services in such detention centres should be undertaken by people with the expertise required to provide a nurturing, caring and healing environment for refugees of different cultural backgrounds and ages.
5. Panels comprising persons with relevant professional expertise and an understanding of refugee issues and experiences should visit detention centres on at least a monthly basis. Their role would be to assess and monitor the wellbeing of children and other detainees and to recommend actions to promote their wellbeing. These recommended actions may include immediate cessation of detention, changes to the conditions of detention, and/or the provision of services and assistance that will promote the wellbeing of children and other detainees. This would require direct access to speak with refugees, including children and their relatives, access to translators and cultural advisors and the ability to seek further specialist assistance as required. The reports and recommendations of panels should be posted on a publicly accessible web site within 14 days of each visit, in a way that protects the identity of detainees.
6. Children should not be confined to detention centres, unless this is determined by independent professionals to be demonstrably in their best interests for a time-limited period. They should be able to attend schools and to participate in other activities in the community. In order to facilitate this, detention centres should not be located in isolated areas.
7. As part of its humanitarian obligations, the Australian Government should provide adequate funding to ensure the timely provision of appropriate health, education, accommodation, language and other services to refugee children and their families. This funding should also cover appropriate levels of assistance to facilitate their successful settlement in the Australian community.
8. The current practice of providing Temporary Protection Visas must be abolished as it inhibits successful settlement and creates protracted uncertainty that is stressful.
