The asylum seekers children in immigration detention centres in Autralia

Résumé du document

Since 1989, refugees seeking asylum in Australia who have arrived by boat have been detained by the Commonwealth Government. Australia is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (in 1990) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Prolonged mandatory detention, breaches many articles of these conventions. Indeed, Australia, by its current policies, breaches at least 13 articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The detention of children and the circumstances under which this has occurred has been the focus of a lot of criticism. Early Childhood Australia gives in the article Children of Asylum Seekers the following position about the incarceration of children: appropriate solutions have to be put in place in order to secure immediate and long-term refugee children's needs. In the article ?A child in detention : dilemmas faced by health professionals', The Medical Journal of Australia expresses concern for children held in detention through the case study of a 6-year-old boy. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, which conducted the National Inquiry into Children in Detention, reproaches the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs for breaching the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Extraits

[...] The younger child was born in detention. The family had been refused refugee status at all the initial stages of processing (Box and were making a final-resort appeal to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs for humanitarian consideration, a process seldom successful. The chronology of events is shown in http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/179_06_150903/zwi10115_fm.html - CBBIDGDHBox 3. For 6 months before presentation, the boy had withdrawn from play with other children, and had been drawing similar repetitive images (Box 4). He became startled when he heard two-way radios used by detention centre officers. [...]

[...] There should be no disclosure of information that could endanger or compromise the child's family in Australia or their home country. Information must not be used inappropriately for purposes other than for that for which it is sought. Staff training Those working with refugee children should receive appropriate training on the needs of refugee children. Goals In relation to refugee children and children of asylum seekers the primary goals are: To ensure the protection and healthy development of all children. [...]

[...] He was discharged back to the detention centre after 6 days in hospital, with follow-up arranged with the centre psychologist and hospital team. The discharge summary, copied to the Centre Manager of Villawood Detention Centre, stated that he was at high risk of recurrence unless a more normal environment could be provided, that he should remain together with his family, and that access to a school with stable peer relationships would be important. In addition, it was asserted that the uncertainty about his family's future was likely to be perpetuating his symptoms. [...]

[...] Church leaders, doctors, psychiatrists, lawyers, human rights groups and the UN have all asked the government to find a solution to this problem which compromises human dignity and health. In 2005, Australia introduced a number of important and necessary reforms to its detention policy which included the release of children from immigration detention centres. But now, Amnesty International is concerned that, despite overwhelming evidence of the human suffering caused in the past by Australia's mandatory detention regime, these significant gains will be lost by other. [...]

[...] mandatory detention is necessary, the inquiry finds that there was no reasonable justification for the continued detention of children over the clear recommendations of mental health experts that they be released immediately . " Although teachers in detention centres were found to have worked hard in difficult conditions, the inquiry reports that the department failed to give education enough priority. Despite the provision of limited playgrounds and toys, the report decided "that a combination of the deprivation of liberty itself, the physical environment of detention, the security measures used and mental health concerns all affect children's participation in play and recreation". [...]