Sydney
7 September 2003
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Tasmania accused
on same-sex adoption and ‘marriage’
Refugee
kids freed, but for how long?
Matter
of perspective
Archbishop
honours Year 12 students
Treasured
Gospels from Holy Island
Own
faith is vital to dialogue – cardinal
Marist
laity unity move
$50,000
for Susan’s pilgrimage
Good
Shepherds find green pastures
Upgraded
Bulls go into bat against their demons
Editorial:
A parallel universe?
Letters:
Age of consent
Conversation:
Prof Friedhelm Mennekes, parish priest and art lecturer - Space for art in a sacred
space
Why
the world is the way it is
1500
reasons to be proud of his school
Brothers
died on mission to save their leader
‘Don’t
forget your people back home’
Pius
XII – Hitler, the Holocaust and ‘Canossa’
On
‘going to Canossa’
Laity,
clergy share the pastoral load
Pell
embraces Cardinal's vision for Sydney Synod
Kylie
on line to help kids
Engadine
sisters in Columban art show
Refugee kids freed, but for how long?
By Marilyn Rodrigues
The five children released from the Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia into the care of Centacare are doing well, although they are aware that they may be returned to detention or even deported at any time, says Dale West, director of Centacare in SA.
The five children – two brothers, aged 15 and 13, and their sisters, aged six, nine and 11 – are in foster care arranged by Centacare in South Australia.
However, their freedom may be short-lived, as the Department of Immigration intends to appeal against the Family Court decision to release them. Their parents are still in detention, and their mother is a few weeks away from giving birth.
Mr West says: "The children are living in a large house owned by the Catholic Church that we had set aside for them some time ago.
“Their foster carers are a mother and daughter who know the family very well, know the language, the appropriate food preparation and can meet their cultural and spiritual needs.”
He said he felt “a bit like the fussy parent”.
“The community response has been mixed but the positive responses we've got have been very generous,” he said.
“The state schools and Catholic schools across Adelaide are only too happy to help. And the children are bursting to learn.
“Apart from that we're just giving them all a taste of what it's like to be free. It sounds corny but it's true.
“They can walk down the street without being worried if they hear a police siren, they can go into a shop and see what they'd like to eat, they went swimming at the local pool yesterday and to the shops and bought some socks and shoes that they needed, really basic things.”
The Bishop of Port Pirie, Eugene Hurley, whose diocese includes the Baxter Detention Centre, applauded the Family Court’s decision to release the children.
“This decision confirms the principle that the welfare of children should always be paramount,” he said.
“Children shouldn’t bein detention and neither should their parents. Families should be held in an alternative detention model in the community while claims are being processed.”