At least 56 children are in detention in Leonora, with 38 between the ages of 4 to 8. During the school holidays they are only allowed out one hour per week to the local recreation centre however the Leonora community is banned during their visits. The people I visited describe that outside the heat can become unbearable, that there is nothing for them to do there, they are limited at best to half an hour a day internet access. The accommodation is minimal. During our Saturday and Sunday at Leonora the detainees were held back and coerced into their rooms. We had described to us distress, alienation, neglect (physical and mental) - they are told to deal with it by thinking 'happy thoughts' or 'by closing their eyes and thinking other stuff'... The children in such an environment surely are being developmentally held back and will find it difficult to keep pace once in society, it is damaging their identity formations and surely even their relationships with their parents who cannot fulfil their full parenting roles in such circumstances.Every visit to a Detention Centre evidences trauma, neglect and negligence.
We aware of assertions that guards and management are aggressive, authoritarian, demeaning, ill trained, and of one guard in particular who is abusive. The fact is that if someone is sick or mentally losing it in Leonora the Centre has no psychologists or counsellors on call, no medical health practitioner onsite, nor has Leonora extensive medical facilities, nor has Leonora nor Kalgoorlie a resident psychologist. Unlike citizens in community the detainees cannot make an appt with a pyschologist or doctor and then organise transport to attend. It was asserted to me by two detainees that a male detainee three weeks ago tried to commit suicide in Leonora. It was asserted to me by two detainees that an Arabic lady detained now nearly a year in Leonora is losing her mind and she does not sleep, she does not speak and walks the corridors all night long. This is what people are enduring and what the CHILDREN have to bear witness to day in day out.
Abuse Allegations Ignored
Refugee Rights Action Network activists reveal complaints about the behaviour of a particular guard towards detainees and fellow staff. Click here for the full story.
Letter from Leonora detainee
Detainees are allowed to give notes but on our last visit in August, those notes were all aggressively confiscated and detainees disciplined for trying to hand them over. We received a letter of apology from the department of immigration and the ombudsman investigated. Their complaint was found to have merit but as the notes had disappeared after Serco employee SM took them into his possession and promised, in the presence a state security officer SW, to mail them to us. They have never been received by us. (we have emails documenting this, both from the dept and from SW) Given this experience this time the notes were handed to us secretly by the detainees. The other notes are currently being translated. Click here to read a note handed over by a detained asylum seeker.
Sex abuse inquiry at Leonora Detention Centre
Alex Massey, The West Australian, September 18, 2010
WA Police are investigating allegations of child sexual abuse at the Immigration Department's detention centre in the remote Goldfields town of Leonora.
Ms Martin-Iverson of the Refugee Rights Action Network said she had raised the potential risk of child sex abuse at Leonora with Senator Evans last month. "I expressed to (Senator) Evans at a public forum the simple reality that we have families who are stressed and are in a situation where they have no power or control over who is with their children,"she told AAP. That they are in no position to protect their children or deny access to their children "a situation which is ripe for abuse."
Jane Hammond, The West Australian, September 18, 2010
Group spokesman of the Refugee Rights Action Group, Phil Chilton, said the child abuse incident highlighted the danger of keeping children in prison-like conditions. "This incident shows the type of risks that come from keeping people in detention. If these people were housed in the community then this would not have happened," Mr Chilton said.
