News Archive for May 2002 - December 2002
Child detainees
likely to attend public schools next year 14 December
Children of detainees at the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia may be
attending Port Augusta public schools by the start of next year. [...] On Thursday night
the council voted 6-2 in defiance of mayor Joy Baluch to allow detainees to use community
facilities, such as schools, libraries and the swimming pool, as proposed by the Federal
Government.
Lib gang of four
praised for freeing children 12 December
Australian Democrats response to new ALP refugee policy
AustralianDemocratsOnALPRefugeePolicy.pdf
"The Australian Democrats remain concerned that the ALP asylum seeker and
refugee policy retains the legislative framework which underlies the Pacific Solution and
like the Coalition policy is based on the policy of deter, detect and deny."
"BY INVITATION ONLY" AUSTRALIAN
ASYLUM POLICY 10 December
The 94-page report, "By Invitation Only: Australian Asylum Policy," is
based on eight months of investigation and challenges the Australian government's policy
on asylum seekers as a breach of the country's international obligations to protect
refugees. [...]
This is the first full report ever issued on Australia by Human Rights Watch, an
international monitoring group based in New York.
Australia: Deterring Asylum
Seekers by Violating Rights 10 December
Study Faults Australia for Accepting Refugees "By Invitation Only"
(Sydney, December 10, 2002) Many refugees who come uninvited to Australia are compelled to
do so because they cannot find effective protection anywhere else, Human Rights Watch said
in a new report released to mark International Human Rights Day.
Support groups slam
latest raid on asylum seekers 9 December
Police took the mother from the home, her 18-month-old twins from a day care
centre, and a five and seven-year-old from a local primary school. Refugee support worker
Sussan Archer says the family was given no warning their visas had been cancelled and were
terrified. "The way that it was done so quickly and instantly was absolutely
terrifying to them and they really didn't understand that," she said.
Lib MPs seek easing
of asylum rules 9 December
Lawrence risks
job on asylum debate 5 December
Crean gives refugee
detention policy an early release 4 December
PM changes tune
on asylum seekers 4 December
ALP
pressures Crean on refugees 4 December
Ruddock
rehouses women, children 4 December
ALP plan to
counsel asylum seekers 3 December
Asylum seeker
revamp splits ALP 3 December
Parents to sue
Ruddock for $750,000 3 December
Steel town, soft
heart 3 December
The steel town of Whyalla has offered a haven to women and children from the Baxter
immigration detention centre who could be released into guarded accommodation.
Govt,
Opposition unveil new asylum policies 3 December
Detention company
accused of inflating education figures 3 December
The Immigration Department has been questioned about whether the company running
detention centres, Australasian Correctional Management, has exaggerated the level of
education provided.
Health of detained
children an 'emergency': psychologist 3 December
The health of children in immigration detention has been called a medical and
psychiatric emergency. The claim was made in a letter by a registered psychologist working
at the Woomera detention centre and was sent to the South Australian Family and Youth
Services Department in November.
About-face
on detention centres policy 2 December
The Federal Government appears set to drop the controversial detention of women,
children and unaccompanied minors, a significant reversal of its asylum seeker policy. It
is believed that Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock will outline the change in a major
statement on immigration issues to parliament this week, possibly as early as tomorrow.
Purchase
the CD Mohsen - Lyrics by Mohsen Soltani Zand - Asylum Seeker
Read this recent poem by Mohsen - a Detainee at Villawood in Sydney
Response to Declaration by a Group of Religious
Communities on the Deportation of Asylum Seekers
by Sister Susan Connelly on the steps of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney 20 November
Building the Vision 19 November
by John Menadue, Australians for Just Refugee Programs
Church group report shows deportees
in danger 18 November
Balcony fall ended
detainee's desperate life 15 November
A
fate worse than prison 11 November
Claims asylum seekers denied birth
rights 8 November
Detainee claims
eight hurt in clash 7 November
Read news from Baxter Detention Centre
Detainee pleads for
chance to care for children 30 October
Give me my
children, a shattered father pleads 27 October
Searching for a
place to belong 24 October
Read
the report of the Senate Select Committee on A Certain Maritime Incident
The Refugee Action Committee in Canberra has produced a "SIEV-X dossier".
It is a 4-page dossier, and can be downloaded from their website: http://www.refugeeaction.org/downloads/siev-x.pdf
Inquiry damns
Reith's 'deliberate distortion' 24 October
Flinders University a Refugee Sanctuary 23 October
Yesterday (23 October), at the initiative of Flinders Chilout, hundreds of Flinders
students gathered on the Plaza to listen to speakers and then voted to make Flinders
University a Refugee Sanctuary
Read Report on
Visits to Immigration Detention Facilities by the Human Rights Commissioner 2001
Detention
ordeals under fire 23 October
Long periods in detention, perceived ill-treatment and a lack of information about
visa applications were adding to the mental health problems of detained asylum seekers,
the Human Rights Commissioner has said.
Australia takes
40 more refugees from Nauru, including 17 children 17 October
Australia denies
blame for asylum seeker's death 10 October
Poet's words from
behind the wire 9 October
Some of Mohsen Soltanyzand's poetry grabs life by the throat. Much of it touches
the heart, fitting poet Matthew Arnold's definition that genuine poetry is conceived and
composed in the soul. He has a lot of time to think about the words, for he has nowhere to
go and not much else to do.
Freed asylum seeker
looks for Australia's soul 9 October
Mothers in battle
for their children 9 October
This man asked for
our help - now he's dead 9 October
Refugees name
baby Ruddock 7 October
Off for an
island holiday 6 October
Flinders University sets quota for TPV Holders Well
done Flinders ChilOut! 3 October
View
artwork by children in detention submitted to HREOC inquiry
Appeal for young Afghan detainee Qadir
Fedayee 1 October
Read about the case of Qadir Fedayee - He needs
our help
Junie Ong ranked most influential NGO in Power 2002 Awards 27
September
Congratulations Junie and ChilOut !
Woomera guards
were dismissed for child assault 2 October
Church offers to
help Russian mother avoid deportation 2 October
More refugees
granted temporary protection visas 2 October
The group - comprising 18 men, 12 women and 19 children - arrived in Sydney
yesterday from Manus Island.
Former
detainee condemns detention centre health standards 1 October
Detention split
'will traumatise baby boy' 1 October
Letters from
behind the wire 27 September
Woomera trial
assessed 26 September
Woomera conditions
likened to Nazi days 20 September
Neglected
Woomera infant was 'the saddest baby I have ever seen' 14 September
Dr Mares said that at five months babies should be at their most indiscriminately friendly
and sociable, smiling and talking, looking around for engagement. "This was the
saddest looking baby I have ever seen," Dr Mares, director of training at the NSW
Institute of Psychiatry, told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission children
in detention inquiry in Adelaide this week. "He was, I would say, emotionally
neglected."
Read the September ChilOut Information Night speech
by Brigadier Adrian D'Hage
WHEN WE LOOK BACK ON THE DEATHS OF 353 DESPERATE ASYLUM SEEKERS, INCLUDING
THOSE THREE LITTLE IRAQI GIRLS FLEEING A TYRANT THAT THE US AND BY IMPLICATION AUSTRALIA
HAS, IN YEARS GONE BY, PROPPED UP AND SUPPORTED – IT TOOK THEIR DEATHS TO PROMPT US
TO REFLECT THAT WE ARE DEALING WITH PEOPLE RATHER THAN A PROBLEM. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT
THE LEADERSHIP IN THIS COUNTRY AND COUNTRIES IN OUR REGION? WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT US AS
AUSTRALIANS?
Read
damning evidence provided to HREOC inquiry by ex-ACM staff
Wanted: a country
to be proud of - Claudia Karvan speaks out 3 September
Read first-hand account of visit to Curtin Centre in July: PDF
Police
investigations criticised into Afghan women's drownings 7 September
Asylum seeker can
be detained now that he's free to go 7 September
Wanted: a country
to be proud of - Claudia Karvan speaks out 3 September
Court does
'deal' for Palestinian 3 September
Judge orders
refugee freed over visa dispute 27 August
Barbed wire
around the bedroom at $191 a night 27 August
The Australian Government maintains it is owed a total of $15.8 million by
detainees for the costs of their detention.
Some are friends
of the strangers 27 August
No turning back
- a review post Tampa 24 August
First person -
the story of a Tampa survivor 24 August
On one of the last days they created a scene - they put a bowl of jam on the deck
and let everybody rush on it and then filmed it. We were really hungry and had not eaten
for many days. Some of our friends shouted and protested saying: "Why are you
rushing, they are humiliating us." Women and children were crying of the humiliation,
of the hunger, thirst and of the exhaustion.
Reporting
Australia’s asylum seeker “crisis” July 2002
Woomera release
to set precedent for detainees 16 August
Court orders
release of Woomera asylum seeker 15 August
The Federal Court today ordered a Palestinian man be released from the Woomera
detention centre, ruling his detention was unlawful after four countries - including his
homeland - refused to take him back.
Brothers'
plight alarms judge 13 August
Kabul plea on
detainees 13 August
Afghan Foreign Minister Abdulla Abdulla yesterday called for a more
"understanding" approach by Australia to Afghan asylum seekers, saying most
would elect to return home once they were satisfied it was safe. [...] "You can see
that Kabul is filling up," he said. "Every day thousands are arriving and the
situation is very difficult for us. People have nowhere to go."
Refugees miss
out on childhood 11 August
The 39 children who live behind coiled razor wire at Woomera have been there for at
least a year.
Reunited: A sick
child and the mother he forgot 11 August
He has been getting to know his mother and other family members again since the family was
reunited in Melbourne. Other family members arrived recently in Australia after release
from eight months in captivity on Nauru.
Woomera
guards 'taunt' prisoners 11 August
Chilout supporter Moira-Jane Conahan speaks out again.
Court
overrules refugee decisions 9 August
Call for judicial inquiry into operation of refugee review tribunal 8 August
"This decision confirms what refugee advocates have been saying for some time
– the system has serious flaws"
RCOA Media release: PDF
Asylum rejections
ruled invalid 8 August
The High Court has thrown into question the Federal Government's process for
determining refugee claims by ruling invalid thousands of decisions by the Refugee Review
Tribunal. In two damning judgements, the bench ruled that asylum seekers had been denied
procedural fairness in cases before the tribunal.
Temporary
visas for Badraie family 8 August
Labor plea to
extend asylum trial 3 August
Asylum policy a
tragedy: UN judge 31 July
Asylum seekers'
plight used to peddle chickens 29 July
'Suicide bid' by
detention boy, 10 20 July
Howard's
razor-wire legacy 20 July
The myth Howard
calls a queue 19 July
On May 7, Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said the government's new migration
program "is focussed on those (refugees) in the greatest need of resettlement".
Fine words, but it doesn't happen that way. There is no carefully assessed list of those
with "superior claims" or those in the "greatest need". It is all
worked out in an ad hoc way and in a very untidy and often cruel and unfair world.
Lawyer
challenges govt to produce evidence 19 July
"We have also given them witness statements from people they knew in
Afghanistan, as well as an expert voice analysis report provided by a PhD student at the
University of Arizona who specialises Afghan dialects and linguistics and he confirms that
Mr Baktiyari is from the part of Afghanistan he says he is from."
Britain rejects
runaway brothers The human cost: suffer
the children 19 July
The look on the face of glassy-eyed Montazar Baktiari said it all - hurt, fear
and confusion etched into every feature.
Suicide tried
many times: tape 19 July
Runaway boys
reunited with mother at Woomera 19 July
"The bottom line here is that this is clearly a form of abuse of the children.
They are being taken back to a place of desolation and despair. They are at a high risk of
self-harm and even suicide and ultimately the Commonwealth government and [Federal
Immigration Minister] Mr Ruddock have to take some responsibility."
Special deal
sought for lone detainee children 17 July
Hitler or
Hussein, no queue 16 July
My father called in favours from his concentration camp comrades, jumped the queue
and obtained exit visas for his family – permits that, strictly speaking, he was not
legally entitled to. Did he do something wrong? Did his illegal act make my family
potentially unsuited for Australia? You only need a mere sketch of the story to see the
absurdity of that question.
Set
detainee children free on parole - UN report 15 July
"Australia is currently the only country in the world that mandatorily detains
children," Ms Phillips said yesterday. "It has not been used 'as a measure of
last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time' as required under Article
37(b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is no legitimate justification
for this discriminatory policy."
Plea for compassion
from persecuted Hazaras 15 July
Nooria Wazefadost, aged 16 but thrown into adulthood, stood in front of her Hazara
community yesterday and told of her fear of being sent back to Afghanistan. "I am
worried about my future and my family's future," she said. "If they send me back
I think I would want to kill myself."
School's out for
young detainees 11 July
Afghanistan's
lost boys are left in limbo land 6 July
"The minister is both jailer and guardian of these children. How unrealistic
is that? How can a person charged with guardianship - and that normally involves all the
diligence and due care of a parent - also be the one who keeps them in detention and
decides if they will be sent home? It is nonsense."
Neglected
Woomera infant was 'the saddest baby I have ever seen' 6 July
Claim detainees
taunted with food, refused medication 6 July
89
detainees continue Woomera hunger strike 6 July
Fear for young
in detention 2 July
"When you have that number of children who are suicidal or self-harming
... to us it is a clear case of child protection, and yet there is nothing anyone can
do."
10 asylum
seekers still on the run 1 July
The submission from the South Australian Coalition for Refugee Children includes a
case of untreated polio in a nine-year-old boy at Port Hedland. The boy's family was told
that no specialist facilities were available and that the child should exercise more.
Australia's Expensive 'Pacific Solution'
June 2002
"[...] I was able to attend a camp leaders' meeting where one of the camp
leaders told me he had no conception of such an island as Nauru. He still finds it
difficult to believe that he is stuck in a camp without freedom, without information about
his own and his family's future, for no crime other than seeking freedom from persecution
and desperation." (Jesuit Refugee Service Newsletter)
The agony of
limbo 29 June
Early this month, a young Iranian woman who has been in Woomera for more than a
year sat in her transportable hut and methodically tried to kill herself.
Spy tape
reveals Nauru despair 22 June
Detainees living in filthy conditions caused by a permanent water shortage.
Contagious stomach and skin infections were rife and many detainees were very depressed.
They'll go
back with more than they came with 22 June
What has happened to the children in Australia's detention camps should make
other countries pause before they, too, string up the barbed
wire and bring on the water cannon.
Child
detainees failed: watchdog 21 June
When Asylum
Seekers Knock, Europe Is Deaf 20 June
Federal Court
judge accuses refugee tribunal of bias 18 June
A Federal Court judge has severely criticised the Refugee Review Tribunal's
handling of two cases for asylum, saying its deliberations were difficult to comprehend,
biased and based on a selective use of evidence.
Australians for
Just Refugee Programs launching national campaign 17 June
National director Howard Glenn said the group wanted policies to reflect
respect, decency and traditional Australian generosity.
Federal Court
judge accuses refugee tribunal of bias 18 June
A Federal Court judge has severely criticised the Refugee Review Tribunal's
handling of two cases for asylum, saying its deliberations were difficult to comprehend,
biased and based on a selective use of evidence.
Ruddock
defends his detainee-pays policy
17 June
Woomera
detainees get newsletter 17 June
U-turn on
where death boat sank 17 June
Australians for
Just Refugee Programs launching national campaign 17 June
National director Howard Glenn said the group wanted policies to reflect
respect, decency and traditional Australian generosity, while also advancing the nation's
international standing.
Asylum seekers boat
sank `in search area' 15 June
Wait continues for asylum seekers on
Nauru 14 June
Island
excise breaches spirit of Refugee Convention: UN 11 June
Boat in danger
of sinking 11 June
Mr Ruddock said a decision last Friday to excise the Torres Strait islands and
thousands of other islands from the Australian migration zone was taken after intelligence
reports that unsafe boats carrying asylum seekers were likely to pass through Torres
Strait on their way to Pacific destinations.
Exclusion zone won't resolve refugee crisis 11 June
"out of sight and out of mind on a Pacific island"
Govt patches up relations
with Nauru 10 June
Pacific solution a 'Pacific
nightmare': Nauru President 10 June
Soft
option for hard heads 8 June
Sooner rather than later Australia will have to find an exit strategy to the
politically driven legacy of election 2001. Paul Kelly, The Australian.
Ruddock
says visitors encourage detainee self harm 6 June
UN concerned at Australian detention
policy 6 June
Philip Ruddock responds to UN
immigration detention scrutiny 6 June
UN critical of Fed Govt 6 June
UNICEF wants the children taken out 6
June
Ruddock says
visitors encourage detainee self harm 6 June
"We conduct detention policy as humanely as possible." (Ruddock)
Worst I've
seen, says UN asylum inspector 5 June
Woomera assault
error admitted 5 June
13 yo boy in Woomera pinned and bashed at 1am on 19 Dec last year by ACM
guards.
Asylum hearing
criticised as unfair 2 June
NSW Guardianship Tribunal
challenges detainee treatment 31 May
While the woman was recovering in a psychiatric unit, immigration officials
approached her about consenting to be deported back to Iran.
Government
defends treatment of children in detention 30 May
Govt submits to HREOC that children "with emotional issues" may have
parents with "poor coping skills"
Advocacy groups warn UN Envoy of hidden abuses 28 May
Woomera prepares for UN
inspection 28 May
NSW Labor
calling on Crean to abandon mandatory detention 26 May
No waltzing
in Woomera 25 May
Bananas in
Pyjamas behind razor wire 22 May
Beautifully painted murals of Bananas in Pyjamas look down from beneath rolls of
razor wire.
Report
slams detention of children 22 May
Mr Purcell said three children had attempted suicide in the past three weeks.
Refusal to vaccinate detainees condemned 20 May
Australian
hypocrisy wrecks children's lives 17 May
Public opinion polls show the Australian public is largely impervious to the
suffering of detainees.
Detention scars children 17 May
Insane Policy 16 May
"I would ask anyone with teenage sons to imagine how they might react to year
after relentless year of cruel and degrading confinement"
Govt Dept alleges detained children's education inadequate 16
May
Read
submissions to Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 15 May
Howard Bilboe, former Woomera psychologist, speaks out 14
May
Bernice Pfitzner, a former Woomera doctor, speaks out 14
May
Preliminary report finds Shayan's detention unjust,
unreasonable, unproportional 8 May
Detention of detainees at Woomera unauthorised, argue lawyers for
escapees 8 May
Australia
attacked for 'harming' child asylum seekers 2 May
Refusal to vaccinate detainees condemned
By Mark Forbes, The Age, May 20 2002
Doctors have condemned the Federal Government's refusal to vaccinate adult asylum seekers in detention against serious illnesses as a discriminatory disgrace. The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Paul Hemming, said it was "outrageous" that asylum seekers were "denied the most fundamental vaccinations and health care we all take for granted". Many were vulnerable to potentially horrific diseases, he said.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock yesterday confirmed a report in The Sunday Age that a doctor's proposal to immunise adult detainees at Woomera against hepatitis B, tetanus and diphtheria had been rejected. The spokesman justified the decision by saying it would be providing something to detainees that was not provided to the general population, but said changes to the provision of health services to detainees, including vaccinations, was under consideration. "One of the reasons we have mandatory detention is we undertake detailed health checks," he said.
One of two doctors working at Woomera late last year, Dr Dominic Meaney, said the centre's operator, Australasian Correctional Management, refused to provide mass hepatitis B immunisations because it would cost $40,000. The refusal came despite 5 per cent of the centre's population being diagnosed with the disease, which could be spread by a drop of blood in a swimming pool, Dr Meaney said.
In May, the Communicable Diseases Network said detainees and their families should be given hepatitis B shots whenever it is detected. Dr Meaney also revealed correspondence with ACM saying adult detainees were not immunised for polio despite many coming from Afghanistan where the disease is a health problem.
Dr Hemming said many detainees came from countries without comprehensive immunisation programs and were susceptible to preventable diseases with horrific implications. "The cost of vaccinating refugees and asylum seekers is minuscule compared to the cost ot treating them on an individual basis should they become ill on their release - let alone the cost of treating an outbreak of a disease such as hepatitis in the broader community," he said.
Detention 'scars' children
By Kerry Taylor, The Age. May 17
2002.
Children who spend long periods in detention centres experience emotional problems and
learning difficulties well after they are released into the community, state and Catholic
education authorities have told a national inquiry.
"It is nearly two years since children were first released from detention and entered
the education system in South Australia. These children have experienced serious hardship,
which has impacted on their psychological and educational wellbeing," the South
Australian Education Department's submission on children in detention says. "They
have very real histories with deep emotional scars. Full recovery from such experiences
will be very long term in extreme cases."
The department told the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission inquiry that classes
in the Woomera detention centre were voluntary and only one in five teachers specialised
in English as a second language. The time children spend in detention had to be minimised,
as long periods in such circumstances led to some being unable to cope beyond the wire
fences, the National Catholic Education Commission said in its submission to the same
inquiry.
Public hearings for the inquiry begin in Melbourne on May 30. It has received more than
200 submissions so far.
Govt Dept alleges detained children's education inadequate
ABC News, 16 May 2002
South Australia's Education Department says children at the Woomera Detention Centre are
receiving less than two hours of schooling a day. The department has made a submission to
a human rights inquiry into children in immigration detention centres. The department says
classes in the Woomera Detention centre are voluntary and only one in five teachers
specialises in English as a second language.
More than 250 children who have been released from Woomera have since been enrolled in the
new arrivals program to prepare them for mainstream schools. However, the department says
it has been left to bear the cost of educating these children because the Commonwealth
Government does not fund education for those on a Temporary Protection Visa.
The report also found the uncertainty of temporary visas has led to behaviour problems
among older children.
Howard Bilboe, former Woomera psychologist, speaks out
Source: SMH 14 May 2002
''If I was here in Canberra, if I had somebody who slashed their arm [wide open] ...
that person would be admitted to a psychiatric ward and ... admitted for a month or more
because the person who did that must be experiencing a major depressive episode,"
says Bilboe.
''Australia has a big thing about depression ... What do they think these people in
detention are suffering from?"
Philip Ruddock has described hanging attempts as ''inappropriate behaviour" and implied self-harm was attention-seeking. In response, Bilboe wonders how Ruddock's comments would be perceived if they related to teenage Australian suicide attempts.
''I'd like to hear Mr Ruddock say this to all the parents [of] the children in Australia," he says. ''It's reactive behaviour to a situation where [they] perceive they have no control."
Source: SMH 14 May 2002
Bilboe explains the ''screening out" process. ''During that [first interview],
detainees have got to say the magic words. There are phrases they have to use ... they're
in fear of their life, they are requesting asylum, they have to state in some way the
nature of the fear of going back to the country they have left and then they basically go
into the story about how they came.
''Often the answers [to how they came] will be 'by boat' but that's not the right answer.
'' ... This is when the problems really started, when they're screened out, they're all
segregated. You're not allowed to tell them they have been screened out, you're not
allowed to tell them their rights. ''You're not allowed to tell them they ... in actual
fact can ... reapply."
One screening-out which Bilboe says went horribly wrong was that of the Badraie family.
Six-year-old Shayan Badraie, an Iranian, was the subject of a Four Corners report which
showed him not eating and in deep depression at the Villawood detention centre.
Advocates for Shayan say he was affected by anxiety and depression after what he saw in
Woomera of people harming themselves and attempting suicide.
Bilboe, who pressed for the family to be moved to Villawood, strongly agrees. ''That child
was normal when he came to Australia, then he [went] to Sierra compound because his
parents were screened out," he says.
Mr Ruddock's spokesman said there was no legal obligation to tell people in that situation
that they could see a solicitor.
Bernice Pfitzner, a former Woomera doctor, speaks out
Source: SMH 14 May 2002
Bernice Pfitzner gave up her job in disgust, having served nine months of a one-year
contract.
''[They were treated] more like criminals than detainees," she said. ''I'm just very
sad. We Australians who usually give people a fair go ... I think the community do not
understand what's happening there."
Preliminary report finds Shayan's detention unjust, unreasonable, unproportional
Source: The Age 8 May 2002
The detention of six-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Shayan Badraie was a breach of
human rights, a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission preliminary report has
found.
The boy, held in Villawood Detention Centre, reportedly stopped eating and drinking and
was admitted to hospital. He was diagnosed with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder.
A leaked HREOC report on the case said there was insufficient evidence that the
Commonwealth took all appropriate measures to prevent Shayan from witnessing self-harm and
riots.
"The failure of the department and the minister to remove Shayan from detention
despite strong medical advice was inconsistent with or contrary to Shayan's human
rights," the document, leaked to ABC television, said. "His continuing detention
was unjust, unreasonable and unproportional."
Detention of detainees at Woomera unauthorised, argue lawyers for escapees
Source: The Age 8 May 2002
A ruling that conditions at the Woomera detention centre were harsh and intolerable would
not mean that asylum seekers should be freed, only that conditions should be improved, the
Federal Government argued yesterday in court.
But Mr Burnside said the situation of detainees at Woomera - where 220 remain - was so bad as to be arguably unauthorised.
"Locking them up in the desert, preventing them from seeing visitors or a doctor or a lawyer and driving them to the point of suicide," Mr Burnside said. "If they have these consequences, it is perfectly arguable that conditions do not fall within the scope of what is authorised."
Mr Burnside asked Mr Moss not to rule on the constitutional issue raised by Mr Bennett because this could prevent the evidence from being put during a subsequent trial. He also opposed deciding the issue in advance because it would delay the cases of 32 Woomera detainees who escaped at Easter and who had since been moved to Port Hedland and Curtin.
Mr Burnside said the real issue was whether detention was punitive and therefore unauthorised. "Here the argument is, is it punitive to deny people the basic dignities of human existence?" Mr Burnside said.
Policy of insane cruelty
Humam, his brothers and sisters and parents have been in detention almost three years, in Western Australia and now at Villawood. During their time in detention they have been involved in numerous incidents of which, of course, there are various versions. But I would ask anyone with teenage sons to imagine how they might react to year after relentless year of cruel and degrading confinement.
Iraqi girl challenges Ruddock claim
Iraqi girl challenges Ruddock claim
By Craig Skehan, Sydney Morning Herald, May 6 2002.
The Trauma of Refugee Children
Maysaa is 12 and now attends school in Australia. Sunday asked her why she was speaking out about her time in detention, given that she only has a temporary visa. She says: "So that the Australian people could understand more how it feels ... to be in detention. And I want him to know how, to let John Howard know who it feels to stay in detention, and how he did to us like that, and what happened to us right now. And I want him to understand how people would feel if their kids or even he was there for that long ten months."
Government comes under fire for detention centre children
Psychologist Lyn Bender can't forget the children she tried to care for in Woomera detention camp until two weeks ago. Like the 5-year-old girl who, after being separated from her mother during a riot, was forced by guards to spend a night in the compound without any special care. By the next morning, she was hysterical.