Offer to assist early release of Children from Detention/

13 May 2004

National human rights organisation A Just Australia today welcomed the report and key findings of the Human Rights Commission's Inquiry into the treatment of children in Australia's immigration detention centres.

The National Director of A Just Australia, Mr Howard Glenn, offered to work constructively with Federal and State Governments and the Department of Immigration to achieve the Inquiry's recommendation that kids currently in detention be released within the next four weeks.

Mr Glenn said that 151 children are in detention this week. More than half have been in detention from before the Human Rights Commission's inquiry began nearly two and a half years ago.

"The first goal now must be to get these kids out of a regime of institutionalised child abuse as quickly as possible", Mr Glenn said.

"We believe the Federal and State governments and their respective welfare agencies have the capacity - if they work co-operatively - to create an alternative environment for these kids and their families who have been exposed to such ongoing trauma," Mr Glenn said.

Mr Glenn said community groups would lend whatever support they could to the measures necessary to get the children out of detention.

Amongst key Inquiry findings were:
· children in detention centres were exposed to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment;
· 92% of the children who reached Australia via boat have been found to be legitimate refugees;
· that the Human Rights Commissioner and the Inquiry was barred from examining the conditions of the children in Nauru.

"The Inquiry's findings and the case studies of how these children have been treated shows cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment, by Australians on behalf of the Australian Government, against children who will one day be Australian citizens", Mr Glenn said today.

"I hope not just the Federal Government but the State Governments, the Premiers and their respective Ministers for Community Services will examine the Report and work closely to achieve its recommendation that these children be released from detention.

"I believe a myriad of refugee support organisations will also work energetically to support steps to get these kids out of custody", he said.

Mr Glenn added that there was also likely to be a need for appropriate compensation to be paid for the trauma inflicted on the children who have been incarcerated for so long.
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"The Report found that the vast bulk of kids kept in detention were legitimate refugees, yet they were incarcerated, sometimes for years", he said.

"There are well established principles for paying compensation in cases of false imprisonment, and this is very much the situation here.

"These kids had a right to protection, and in most cases they will go on to become Australian citizens.

"Yet they have been held in detention for years, compounding the trauma of their flight from failed and abusive regimes such Hussein's Iraq and the Taliban's Afghanistan.

"Now is the time for Australians to re-examine how we have treated these victims of the very regimes we today condemn as evil.

"Step one must be their immediate release and the provision of appropriate welfare, medical and psychological support to assist them to deal with the trauma they have experienced over the last few years.

"Step two must be the examination of any criminal or other offences which may have taken place under current policies. Ultimately the Federal Government, its departments and contractors must be held accountable for the treatment of children under their care.

"Step three must be the re-examination of our national policies which have led to the creation of such regime of institutionalised child abuse which clearly is in breach of our international obligations under treaties such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

"This will no doubt raise awkward and uncomfortable questions for us all, but they must be addressed if we are to prevent such abuses occurring in the future.

"Ultimately as a nation we all have to look at how we have been complicit in treating these children," Mr Glenn said.