Children in detention - UN joins chorus of condemnation

4 November 2003

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has joined the Family Court, the SA Department of Family Services, numerous medical, professional, community and church groups, and the tide of Australian public opinion, to argue that children should not be locked up in detention centres.

The UN judgement also says that Mrs Bakhtiyari and her children should be compensated for their time in detention, and that the family should not be split by deportation.

The Australian government has been asked to respond within 90 days.

The decision was handed down in considering the case of the Bakhtiyari family.

It can now be revealed this family were the subject of the 19 June 2003 decision of the Family Court, which ordered the release of the children after two years and eight months in detention.

Mrs Bakhtiyari, who recently gave birth in an Adelaide hospital while surrounded by guards - the so-called 'Baby Squad' - remains in detention after two years and ten months.

"This is a family tragedy," said A Just Australia National Director Howard Glenn. "It requires healing.

"These children should never have been detained like this. They have suffered a terrible injustice and been denied their childhood.

"The government's insistence on detaining asylum seeker children has come under increasing pressure as it becomes clearer the practice is unlawful and unacceptable.

"Immigration Minister Vanstone has a choice. She can continue to defy domestic and international legal opinion, and the weight of Australian public opinion, and argue that locking children up is still the right thing to do, risking further legal challenges and possible compensation claims.

"Or, she can release the remaining children into the community and allow them to get on with being children.

"We hope she makes the right choice."