UNCC100 HOT TOPIC:No Child's Play: Children in Immigration DetentionContentsIntroductionBackgroundPerspectives overviewPerspective 1: The Human Rights Commission Inquiry 2014: The Forgotten ChildrenPerspective 2: The Australian GovernmentPerspective 3: Advocacy Groups for Children in DetentionPerspective 4: Children in Immigration DetentionPerspective 5: A Christian PerspectiveEthical questionsWhich approach would most effectively promote the common good?Copyright (c) Australian Catholic University 2015 1No Child's Play: Children in Immigration DetentionA number of resources have been provided for you in this package. Use any / all of the material to complete your analysis.IntroductionThe treatment of asylum seekers is a highly contentious issue both in Australia, and throughout the world. It has beenAustralian policy since 1992 that all non-citizens, including children, who seek entrance to Australia without a legal visa aredetained. 1 Many of those detained in mandatory detention centres are fleeing from persecution in their home countries.They are often refugees from extremely poor and dangerous circumstances, seeking safety and new lives. Most asylumseekers travel to Australia by boat, which is an extremely hazardous, and potentially fatal, voyage. 2 Once safely arrived inAustralia, they are subsequently detained in detention until their claims can be legally processed. However, there is no limitplaced on the maximum time an adult, or child, can be held in detention. 3 Moreover, detainees will only be released if theyare either granted an Australian visa, or removed from Australia. 4 SBS has developed an interactive documentary websiteillustrating what life is like inside detention centres. One especially vulnerable group of asylum seekers is that of children.Australia’s practice of detaining children in immigration detention centres brings with it special ethical concerns, especiallyas Australia is the only country in the world to use mandatory and indefinite detention as the first resort for child asylumseekers. 51 Australian Human Rights Commission, “Information about Children in Immigration Detention”, Australian Human RightsCommission, accessed 27 May, 2015. There are several types of detention: immigration detention centres, which can below or high security; immigration residential housing; immigration transit accommodation; and alternative places ofdetention. For information on these different types of detention, see the Government website2 Between 2008 and 2013, over 1000 asylum seekers, including at least 15 children, died making the voyage to Australia,according to The Australian Human Rights Commission, The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children inImmigration Detention (2014) accessed 27 May, 2015 p. 11. See also the Australian Border Deaths Database, createdby Monash university researchers, which records all known deaths associated with Australia’s borders since 2000. Thereis also a visual representation of this database available on SBS3 Australian Human Rights Commission, “Information about Children in Immigration Detention”4 Australian Human Rights Commission, “Information about Children in Immigration Detention”5 Australian Human Rights Commission, The Forgotten Children Report, p. 10.Copyright (c) Australian Catholic University 2015 2BackgroundThe immigration detention of children has been the focus of ethical debate in Australia for over a decade. 6 The majority ofchildren in detention arrive in Australia by boat and are seeking asylum. 7 Some, however, are born into, and spend the firstyears of their lives in, locked detention centres. From January 2013 to March 2014, 128 babies were born in Australianimmigration detention facilities. 8 Many children are unaccompanied by parents or family. 9 There are serious concerns asto the effects being held in detention has on the health and development of children. Children in detention are at risk ofmental, physical, and sexual violence and abuse, as well as increased risk of self-harm. On May 27th 2015, the mediareported that there have been 280 incidents of assault in immigration detentions in three months. Of fifteen reported sexualassaults, two involved children, and occurred at onshore detention centres. 10 Moreover, in the 10 months preceding May2015, there were hundreds of reports of self-harm, including 48 cases involving children in Australia, and 26 cases inNauru. 11 Children are also denied basic freedoms. Opportunities for education are extremely limited, as are leisure andsocial activities. One paediatrics professor describes detention as “a toxic environment”. 12As at March 2014, on average, child asylum seekers spend 231 days in an immigration detention centre. However, thereare 19 children being held in indefinite detention, due to an “adverse security assessment”. 13 The situation faced bychildren held in immigration detention received major attention in 2001, after the airing of an episode of Four Corners(available here or access the full transcript). The episode focused on six year old Shayan Bedraie, who was held atWoomera and Villawood detention centres. 14 Shayan was so traumatised by his treatment that he was diagnosed withpost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and placed under psychiatric care. 15 Over a decade later, in April 2015,Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was accused of “mentally torturing a child by keeping her in detention on Nauru” byGreens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. The five year old girl was diagnosed with PTSD caused by being held in detentionin Nauru. She will be forced to go back to the Nauru detention centre, against medical advice that she and her family behoused in the community. 16Claire O’Connor, lawyer and chair of the SA Council for Civil Liberties, reports that conditions within detention centres areworse than those within Australia prisons. 17 She writes, “I have seen small children pressing their faces into wire andstaring out to the desert of Woomera. I have observed row after row of metal huts in separated compounds, surrounded byrazor wire, with no play areas and no vegetation. The children I observed had seen guards in uniforms, sometimes wearingfull riot gear with batons and face masks. Many children witnessed water cannons being used on detainees, and manyhave seen and continue to witness detainees self-harming by hanging, jumping into razor wire, cutting themselves andsewing their lips together. For years, children in detention were referred to by number, not by name.” 18The practice of holding children in detention immigration is a complex, and far from clear-cut, ethical issue. It iscomplicated by conflicting viewpoints, statistics, and information. For example, the Australian Government’s official policyis that “children will not be held in high security immigration detention centres.” Instead, “Children might be accommodatedin low security facilities within the immigration detention network”. 19 Such facilities “include immigration residentialhousing, immigration transit accommodation and alternative places of detention.” 20 However, despite this policy, thereality is that children are held in high security immigration detention centres. 21 The number of children held in detention
constantly fluctuates. However, it has generally declined over the last several years. In September 2013, 1992 children
were held in detention. 22 This number dropped down to 938 in May 2014. 23 According to the latest government statistics,
dated 30th April 2015, the number of children being held in immigration detention in Australia dropped to 127. 24 However,
this number does not include children held in offshore detention centres. For example, 103 children were being held in the
Nauru detention centre, as at March 2015. 25 The issue is further complicated by a lack of transparency, especially around
the conditions in offshore centres, such as Nauru. In May 2015, senior managers of Nauru were unable to answer key
questions asked by the Senate abuse inquiry.
A further example of conflicting information around this issue is the recent incident involving Save the Children aid workers
on Nauru. The workers urged an inquiry into the treatment of detainees, including children, in Nauru, claiming there are high
levels of sexual and physical abuse, including incidents of children being forced to perform sexual acts in front of guards.
However, ten Save the Children aid workers were subsequently removed from Nauru, under allegations that they fabricated
the abuse claims, and were encouraging detainees to carry out acts of self-harm and protest against the government. Save
the Children rejected the allegations, and defended the integrity of their workers. In October 2014, an independent review
was called to establish the truth about the allegations, called the Moss Inquiry. The Moss Inquiry cleared Save the Children
workers from the allegations. It also found “evidence of rape, sexual assault of minors and guards trading marijuana for
sexual favours from female detainees.” 26 The report recommended that the removal of the aid workers be reviewed. 27
The full report is available here (you need only read the Executive Summary and Recommendations, pp. 3-10). In the wake
of the Moss Inquiry, the Australian Lawyers Alliance argues that: “The nature of allegations raised in the Moss Review of
sexual harassment, rape, trading sexual favours…and children being touched inappropriately, if proven, show that the
Commonwealth has failed in its duty to take reasonable care of asylum seekers.” 28 Former Immigration Minister Scott
Morrison refuses to apologise to Save the Children for dismissing the aid workers.
As we can see, the issue of children being held in immigration detention is far from straightforward.
Copyright (c) Australian Catholic University 2015 3
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Claire O’Connor, “Cruelty in our
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