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Detained children ‘out of sight, out of mind’
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| By Damir Govorcin
3 March, 2013 |
The presence of 34 children in the Manus Island Assessment Centre is a “matter of grave concern” to Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Australia.
“We now have enough information about the terrible effects long-term and indefinite immigration detention can have on adults and children,” said JRS director Fr Aloysious Mowe SJ.
“JRS Australia is shocked at the apparent indifference shown by politicians in the main parties, and sections of the general public, to the indefinite detention of children and adults who have not committed any crimes, but who in fact had made their way to Australia to exercise their legal right under international law to seek protection here.
“It is likely that we have a case here of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.”
Fr Mowe says by sending dependent children to Manus Island, the Government has placed itself in breach of its own so-called “detention values” which pledge, among other things, not to detain children in an immigration detention centre.
“The Manus Island Assessment Centre is a closed centre, out of bounds to the public and the media, and affording no freedom of movement to the children and their families who are held there,” he said.
“The ‘detention values’ that are supposed to inform Australian detention policy also state that ‘detention in immigration detention centres is only to be used as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time’, and that detention that is ‘indefinite or otherwise arbitrary is not acceptable and the length and conditions of detention ... would be subject to regular review’.
“The asylum seekers sent to Manus by the Australian Government have not been processed, and have not been informed as to when and how their refugee status claims are to be assessed.
“They face an indefinite period of detention because of the Government’s ‘no advantage’ test that could see them remain on Manus for five years or more, and up to now there has been no independent authority set up to assess the necessity of their detention or the conditions under which they are being held. This constitutes arbitrary and indefinite detention, a breach of Australian and international law.”
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