Bonne's message of hope
The Advertiser, Friday 12 MAR 2004, Page 13
By MARK PHILLIPS in Canberra
PORT AUGUSTA schoolgirl Bonne Martinot visited Canberra for the first time
yesterday to personally plead for the release of her Middle Eastern friends from
immigration detention. The 15-year-old has befriended other teenagers who attend
the Port Augusta Secondary School but at the end of each day return to either
the Baxter detention centre or the town's residential housing project.
Bonne yesterday joined seven other teenagers, including three refugees, to lobby
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone for the release of 158 children into the
community.
Photo courtesy of the Adelaide Advertiser
ChilOut Ambassadors at Parliament House
FRONT ROW, L TO R: Sayed Reza, Bonne, Nahid
BACK ROW, L TO R: Hannah, Joan, Zahra, Fabienne, Krystal
There are 23 children - mostly Iranians - detained in either Baxter or the Port Augusta housing for mothers and families. They are part of 158 children in formal detention by the Australian government, including 83 on Nauru. Numbers fell by 19 over the past month, partly because of the resettlement of 10 children in New Zealand. Another 98 children are in alternative accommodation, such as foster care, motels or hospitals.
"I adore them,'' Bonne said of the 18 detainee children she has met. She
wore a t-shirt emblazoned with the names of some of her friends written in their
native tongue.
Bonne, who has learnt snippets of Persian, Arabic and Dari from her new friends,
said meeting the detainees was the best thing that had happened to her over the
past year. "They're really happy at school like any other kid,'' she said.
"They come with their lunchbox, but detention doesn't get any better for
them and one of my friends said, `when I go back to Baxter it's very depressing
and I can't breath'.''
The delegation of teenagers, from the ChilOut organisation, came to Canberra
armed with a petition containing 5000 signatures calling for a permanent end to
child detention. Some, like Bonne, said they had suffered some harassment at
school for campaigning on the detainees' behalf. Krystal McIver, 16, who attends
the Wagga Wagga TAFE, said she had been threatened with suspension by her
principal when she defied his instructions not to collect signatures at school.
The teenagers described the meeting with Senator Vanstone as informative but
unproductive.
Her predecessor as Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, was less keen for a
meeting.The smile slipped from his face when he realised they were there to
protest against his policies. He made a quick exit.