In The News

10 years old, 2 years Woomera More recent news items... Policy of insane cruelty By Greg Sheridan, The Australian, May 16 2002. Humam, his brothers and sisters and parents have been in detention almost three years, in Western Australia and now at Villawood. During their time in detention they have been involved in numerous incidents of which, of course, there are various versions. But I would ask anyone with teenage sons to imagine how they might react to year after relentless year of cruel and degrading confinement. Iraqi girl challenges Ruddock claim By Craig Skehan, Sydney Morning Herald, May 6 2002. The Trauma of Refugee Children Channel 9, Sunday Program, May 5, 2002. Maysaa is 12 and now attends school in Australia. Sunday asked her why she was speaking out about her time in detention, given that she only has a temporary visa. She says: "So that the Australian people could understand more how it feels ... to be in detention. And I want him to know how, to let John Howard know who it feels to stay in detention, and how he did to us like that, and what happened to us right now. And I want him to understand how people would feel if their kids or even he was there for that long ten months." Government comes under fire for detention centre children ABC LATELINE, Broadcast May 1, 2002. Psychologist Lyn Bender can't forget the children she tried to care for in Woomera detention camp until two weeks ago. Like the 5-year-old girl who, after being separated from her mother during a riot, was forced by guards to spend a night in the compound without any special care. By the next morning, she was hysterical. Teachers call for education of child detainees April 26 2002, AAP. The NSW Teachers Federation said it had written to Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock on behalf of seven organisations requesting it be allowed access to the centre, and to allow the children to go to local schools. The federation said the Howard government was in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by failing to provide adequate education for children of asylum seekers. Woomera stories emerge amid release of Curtin video ABC LATELINE, Broadcast April 22, 2002. "I myself actually witnessed in a compound, a child of either 11 or 12, a little boy, trying to hang himself. And that was not the only instance of a child of that age attempting to hang himself." Terry Zeecher, Clinical psychologist, employed at Woomera for two weeks in March this year. Experts respond to Curtin Video ABC LATELINE, Broadcast April 22, 2002. "Let me put it this way -- if the conditions that you have seen in Curtin and Woomera and some of the other detention centres were replicated in an Australian jail, they would be ungovernable." Prof. Richard Harding, WA Custodial Services Woomera carers speak despite gag By Penelope Debelle, Kerry Taylor, The Age, April 24 2002. Three health professionals who worked at the Woomera detention centre have risked legal action by speaking out against the conditions they witnessed. St Kilda psychologist Lyn Bender had her contract with centre managers Australasian Correctional Management paid out two days early after she complained about the treatment of a 13-year-old boy who was threatening to commit suicide. Read more coverage on this issue in The Age. Child detainees 'the most disadvantaged' By Chee Chee Leung, The Age, April 18 2002. Children in immigration detention centres were "the most disadvantaged kids . . . on Australian soil", Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski said yesterday. Intolerable Woomera conditions 16 April, 2002. AAP. Many young people in the Woomera detention centre are suffering severe mental problems, a South Australian government report has found. The report, which followed an inspection by child protection officers after Easter, also raises specific issues relating to the welfare and treatment of children at the outback facility. Social Justice Minister Stephanie Key said it had prompted her to conclude conditions for children at Woomera were intolerable. A Family Apart in Australia By Richard C. Paddock, LA Times, 10 Apr 2002. Attorneys representing the family say the case is one of about 30 in which wives and children are being held while the husbands and fathers have received asylum.[...] On March 9, Ali saw his family for the first time in more than two years. Roqia and the older children wept with joy, though 5-year-old Ameneh didn't recognize him. "When I saw my husband, I was so happy I thought I was reborn in this world again," Roqia said. In an interview the day after the reunion, Ali said he did not see why the government was detaining his wife and children. "If a baby bird falls from the nest and someone sees it, they would put it back in the nest," he said. School's out for asylum seekers 10 Apr 2002, ABC 7:30 Report Department of Immigration issued this statement: While detainees are encouraged to attend educational programs, participation is voluntary. All minors are taught a curriculum based on literacy and numeracy skills, in English, social studies, maths, science, and sports. "In my opinion it's a joke. It's a farce. ACM are obliged to provide education to the detainees and they do so in name. In reality, it's a very, very different practice." Katie Brosnan, Former teacher at Port Hedland Detention Centre. Government response Ill asylum seeker's release delayed By Penelope Debelle, The Age, April 10, 2002. A South Australian Supreme Court order that a mentally ill Afghan asylum seeker be released from a psychiatric hospital into the care of an Afghan family was delayed yesterday after Federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock intervened. Mr Fedayee, who Mr Harley said slipped in and out of catatonic states during which he would lie, wailing, in the foetal position, has spent the past six weeks with a government-contracted security guard constantly at his bedside. The court heard that Mr Fedayee's father and mother were killed by the Taliban during a massacre that destroyed his village in Afghanistan. At 16, Mr Fedayee arrived unaccompanied at Woomera and his psychiatric condition deteriorated. Refugee test case collapses The Australian, April 15, 2002. Asylum seeker in community care The Age, April 16, 2002. Injunction extended until 19th April. Fedayee granted bridging visa  ABC News online, April 19, 2002. Earlier this month the (South Australian) Public Advocate won a temporary injunction to allow Quadir Fedayee, 19, to be treated in the community for severe post traumatic stress disorder. Today the Immigration Department gave Mr Fedayee a bridging visa. That means he does not yet have refugee status, but he is no longer in any form of immigration detention. Lawyers for the Public Advocate told the Supreme Court that was the outcome they always wanted. Children draw on their own trauma By Penelope Debelle, Russell Skelton, The Age, April 9 2002. There are 77 children at Woomera and their mental state is of such concern that last week the new Rann Labor Government in South Australia sent about eight child protection workers to investigate their plight. [...] "The problem is that parents are often too traumatised to look after their kids. There are hunger strikes going on, detainees trying to commit suicide. Woomera is no place for children," the [ACM] employee told The Age. Legal reprieve for refugee family By Leonie Lamont, Sydney Morning Herald, April 9 2002. The tortuous road to a permanent home in Australia took another turn for the Badraie family yesterday, when the full bench of the Federal Court ordered that their application for refugee status be re-heard. Claim Afghan detainee denied appropriate psychiatric care ABC LATELINE, Broadcast April 8, 2002. A seriously ill Afghan detainee is at the centre of a political battle. The young man's plight once again casts doubt on the Federal Government's management of the Woomera Detention Centre. The South Australian Government's Public Advocate for Mental Health is preparing legal action against the Department of Immigration over the young man's treatment. Shame on us all By Hugh Mackay, Sydney Morning Herald, March 30 2002. What will you say when your grandchildren ask you: "Didn't you know that little children were kept behind razor-wire fences for two years or more?" When they learn that psychiatrists were worried about the likely effect on the mental, emotional and physical health of infants being raised in detention centres, how will you defend your indifference to that? Detention centres under medical spotlight ABC LATELINE, Broadcast March 27, 2002. The treatment of asylum seekers in detention is once again under scrutiny tonight. Lateline has uncovered a case in which a young mother at Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre is said to have almost died because of inadequate medical care. The 24-year-old woman was suicidal and suffering from two severe infections, when two independent doctors assessed her yesterday. She was finally hospitalised last night, but her 10-month-old baby remains in Villawood. Follow up on ABC Radio AM, March 28, 2002: Sick Villawood detainee hospitalised Ruddock responds Labor probe on Woomera By Julie-Anne Davies, The Age, March 25, 2002. The newly elected South Australian Labor Government will investigate the Woomera child abuse claims made by two Melbourne social workers if the reports are found to fall within SA's child protection laws. It is abuse, Mr Ruddock By Chris Goddard, Max Liddell The Age, March 21 2002. We are today reporting the children held in the Woomera Detention Centre to the South Australian Department of Human Services. We are taking this action because we have formed a suspicion, on reasonable grounds, that the children are being abused and/or neglected - and under the relevant South Australian legislation, reporting of suspected child abuse is mandatory for social workers. It is surely impossible to imagine that any child-protection service anywhere in the world would regard keeping a child behind razor wire in a desert as anything but emotionally abusive. Child abuse experts act on Woomera By Julie-Anne Davies, March 21 2002, The Age. The head of Monash University's social work department, Chris Goddard, and senior lecturer Max Liddell claim that as social workers they are obligated under that state's mandatory reporting laws to do so, despite living outside South Australia. "We have thought long and hard about this and believe a failure to act now would be an abrogation of our responsibilities," Dr Goddard said. Australian doctors concerned over detention of children ABC LATELINE, Broadcast March 19, 2002. Australia's doctors are expressing growing concern about the plight of children in detention centres. Almost every independent medical body is now calling on the Howard Government to remove children and their families from detention centres. Tales from behind the fence By Russell Skelton, March 18 2002, The Age. When "Allamdar", a 13-year-old Afghan boy stepped off the bus at Woomera a year ago, social welfare officers were struck by how confident, proud and happy he seemed. "He was an amazingly positive kid, a natural leader. His family seemed happy that they had finally reached Australia and the opportunity for a new life," recalled one officer. But after a year behind the razor wire, Allamdar's confidence is shattered. He is under constant "self-harm" watch. He sewed his lips together during the January hunger strike and recently gouged the word "freedom" into his left arm. His body is covered with scars where he has repeatedly slashed himself. Despair inside Woomera: one troubled man's story By Russell Skelton, March 18 2002, The Age. Mr Varasi said it was an enormous relief for him to be out of the Woomera "hell hole" after eight months, but he expressed deep concern for the hundreds of detainees and their children he had left behind. "I have a duty to speak and tell the truth about Woomera," he said. "It is a living hell." Asylum seekers find the hurdle has just got higher By Marian Wilkinson, Sydney Morning Herald, March 13, 2002. Scores of Afghan asylum seekers being held in detention in Woomera, Port Headland and Curtin have been denied protection visas despite recommendations by the Department of Immigration's own officers to grant them. Confidential departmental emails made available to the Herald show that as recently as Monday, a blanket decision was made in Canberra to reject favourable visa recommendations for a large number of Afghans. Families in detention ABC LATELINE, Broadcast February 15, 2002. Among the hundreds of refugees being held in detention, one group feels particularly hard done by. They are the women and children who remain in detention, while their husbands and fathers are out in the community on temporary protection visas Scenes from an Australian hell By Heather Tyler, Middle East Times, February 15, 2002. The screams of terrified children almost drown out the charge of the baton-wielding riot squad bursting into the cramped accommodation quarters where families live. When we do nothing about child abuse By Lucy Clark, Daily Telegraph, February 8, 2002. Can you imagine a six-year-old girl, asks LUCY CLARK incarcerated and separated from her parents, weeping alone at night with no-one to comfort her, no-one to stroke her little hand? Silent lips By Heather Tyler, January 22, 2002. Quoting from Dr. Michael Dudley, "Children in detention are not in a safe place. If children in the community were exposed to the violence they witness, and conditions inside Woomera, they would be removed from that environment. Why should this be any different?" The 'Crime' of Being a Young Refugee By Richard C. Paddock, Los Angeles Times, January 5, 2002. SYDNEY, Australia -- Thurgam al Abbadi has never been convicted of a crime or sentenced to prison, but he is locked up indefinitely here behind high metal fences and razor wire. Refugees find "hell down under" By Heather Tyler, Middle East Times, December 28, 2001. If he was handcuffed to an armed guard, Iraqi doctor Aamer Sultan might have been permitted to receive his human rights award in Sydney, Australia. But on the day he was awarded the Human Rights Equal Opportunities Australia Highly Commended certificate, Dr. Sultan remained imprisoned behind multiple barbed wire fences in the bleak detention center of Villawood, tucked away behind an industrial estate on the outskirts of Australia's largest city. Barbed-wire playground Concern for the well-being of 582 child asylum seekers is bringing increased opposition to the policy that keeps them locked up. Tony Stephens tells some of their stories. Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, December 15, 2001. Voices of conscience Resolute protesters are quickly learning they won't easily change immigration law, writes Marian Wilkinson. Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, December 15, 2001. Treatment of refugees should come from the heart A fresh approach to asylum-seekers, including considering a community-release program, is long overdue, writes Alice Tay. Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday, December 19, 2001. Inquiry on children in detention The Howard Government is to face a public inquiry into claims of violence and denial of rights involving almost 600 children in refugee detention centres. By Mike Steketee, National affairs editor, The Australian, November 28, 2001. Refugees should be seen as assets, not liabilities, says Stokes The chairman of the Seven Network, Kerry Stokes, last night said refugees and migrants should not be regarded as liabilities but as Australians making important contributions to the nation. By Pilita Clark, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 October 2001.