Lost children of the boat people

by Peter Mac

If you thought that our treatment of the asylum seekers couldn't get much 
worse, think again. Welfare workers have long been deeply concerned about 
the effects of extended periods of incarceration on the 258 children 
currently being held in Australian detention centres. There have been 
widespread reports of bed-wetting, listlessness, withdrawal, nightmares and 
other indications of trauma, as well as of the enforced imprisonment of 
children in isolation cells and police lock-ups.

However, stories are now emerging about 53 children having been held for 
long periods without parents or friends. They include one eight-year-old 
boy who has apparently been held for some six months, with no family 
support whatever, as well as a number of teenage boys from Afghanistan, who 
with their parents' help had fled from persecution by the Taliban.

As a result, the Australian Human Rights Commission is to hold an inquiry 
into this further aspect of the Federal Government's refugee policy. The 
Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Sev Ozdowski, has revealed that he has 
already examined a number of reports on the subject and visited detention 
centres.

As part of its brief, the Commission will attempt to determine whether the 
Australian Government is breaching its international obligations as a 
signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

It will also examine the long-term effects of detention on the mental 
health of children, and the adequacy of current detention regimes, 
including education, culture and security.

The inquiry will examine alternatives to the current system of detention, 
including the new system of community-based detention currently being tried 
in Woomera.

Dr Ozdowski commented: "We are required to treat all children the same, 
irrespective of how they come to Australia." He added pointedly: "I do not 
believe the system at the moment provides the best protection for 
children."

Under Australian law, the Minister for Immigration is formally deemed to be 
the guardian for children who arrive in Australia without visas. In 
practice, this responsibility may be delegated to either a state government 
representative or to the manager of the detention centre where the child is 
held.

Dr Ozdowski has stated that this arrangement is unsatisfactory, since it 
constitutes a clear conflict of ministerial interest.

The Minister for Immigration, Mr Phillip Ruddock, has moved to distance 
himself from this aspect of his ministerial responsibilities. In an 
interview this week a spokesman for the Minister quickly diverted attention 
from the plight of the detainee children to what he saw as the real issue. 
On behalf of the Government he stated: "We are not happy with children in 
detention, but we are not the ones that brought them here to Australia."

He further declared that the inquiry should look at the motives of people 
who send their children unaccompanied on boats, and stated that he believed 
some of the unaccompanied children in the detention centres had been 
deliberately sent there to establish refugee claims.

However, Trish Highfield, a regular humanitarian visitor to Sydney's 
Villawood Detention Centre, last week insisted on drawing the Government's 
attention back to its responsibilities for the treatment of the detainee 
children. She noted bluntly: "We are producing resentful, damaged angry 
young people who are going to come out into society, if they don't rot 
first."