Recent News Items
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
MS Word or PDF
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
Visit our new book list
Read first-hand account of visit to Curtin Centre in July: MS Word or 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 Australias 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 MS Word or 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
Earlier news items...
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.
