Articles
The Conversation asks for five policy perspectives on preventing more asylum seeker tragedies, ChilOut's Kate Gauthier and four other experts are asked; What is the problem and what can we do better? 22 December 2011
ChilOut writes to Minister. Stop sending children from community detention back into locked detention
15 Dec 2011 Read our letter
Doctors Slam Asylum-Seeker Age Test
06/10/2011 Mark Dodd in The Australian
Top medical organisations have warned Immigration Minister Chris Bowen that using X-rays or genital examination to determine the age of crewmen from asylum-seeker boats is "unethical", "unreliable", "untrustworthy" and would be illegal in Britain. Known as the Gruelich and Pyle method, the X-ray procedure is outlawed in Britain, where medical practicioners can be charged with assault and professional misconduct for using it without informed consent. This intervention came as the Australian Human Rights Commission indicated it was considering investigating allegations that as many as 50 Indonesian juveniles arrested by the AFP for involvement in people-trafficking were being held unlawfully in adult prisons. Last night, a spokesman for Mr Bowen said the AFP could continue to use the X-ray process to determine ages. Lawyers close to the case say that doubts about the accuracy of the method meant that Mr Bowen should immediately order the release of the 50 alleged juveniles currently held in prison and facing sentencing on people-smuggling charges.
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Companies Use Immigration Crackdown To Turn A Profit
28/09/11 Nina Bernstein in The New York Times
28/09/11 Nina Bernstein in The New York Times
Multinational security companies are turning crackdowns on immigration into a growing global industry. However, this ballooning of privatized detention has been accompanied by scathing inspection reports, lawsuits and the documentation of widespread abuse and neglect, sometimes lethal. No country has more completely outsourced immigration enforcement, with more troubled results, than Australia.
Naomi Leong, a shy 9-year-old, was born in Villawood detention camp. For more than three years, at a cost of about $380,000, she and her mother were held behind its barbed wire. Psychiatrists said Naomi was growing up mute, banging her head against the walls while her mother, Virginia Leong, a Malaysian citizen accused of trying to use a false passport, sank into depression. Naomi and her mother became a cause celebre in protests against the mandatory detention system, leading to their release in 2005 on rare humanitarian visas. They are now citizens. "I come here to give little bit of hope to the people," Ms. Leong said during a recent visit to Villawood, where posters display the governing principles of Serco, beginning with "We foster an entrepreneurial culture."
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Detention- No Place For A One Year Old's Birthday Party
28/09/11 Lee Rhiannon in News Story Immigration and Citizenship/Blog Post
The Greens Senator reflects on a child's first birthday spent at Villawood Immigration detention centre. Despite the family's current refugee status, they continue to be detained (in breach of Australia's human rights obligations) due to an adverse ASIO assessment which they are unable to review or respond to. The Senator calls for more humane treatment of this family and others in the same situation who would be more adequately managed at a decreased cost housed in the community.
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Holding Asylum Seeker Children Likened to Abuse
27/09/11 Kirsty Needham in The Sydney Morning Herald.
Children continue to be held in detention despite federal policy that they should be housed in the community while awaiting protection visa outcomes. Health professionals report a high prevalence of depression and mental health concerns including the recent case of an unaccompanied nine year old transported to hospital after an attempted suicide. Immigration officials confirmed that 75 unaccompanied children will be moved from Christmas Island to the Leonora detention facility this week. There are serious concerns that the geographically isolated facility will not adequately meet the mental health needs of these children.
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The Profession Calls for Humane Treatment of Asylum Seekers
26/08/11 Annette G Katelaris and Mark Harris in The Medical Journal of Australia (MJA 2011: 195 (6): 309)
Asylum seekers often require medical assistance due to harmful exposure to the environments that they are fleeing from and enduring on their journey. However, there are inevitable difficulties due to Medicare ineligibility and poor access to interpreters. This editorial cites the CDP report (A new approach: breaking the stalemate on refugees and asylum seekers) contributed to by ChilOut chair Kate Gauthier as 'a balanced and insightful set of solutions' and calls for urgent action to end physical and mental harm caused by prolonged periods of immigration detention.
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Suicide and Self-Harm in Immigration Detention
07/08/2011 Louise K Newman, Nicholas G Procter and Michael Dudley in The Medical Journal of Australia ( MJA 2011; 195 (6) : 310-311).
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Border Security's Real Cost
12/09/11 Edmund Tadros and Bianca Hall in The Canberra Times
12/09/11 Edmund Tadros and Bianca Hall in The Canberra Times
Who is really benefiting from Federal Government's immigration policies? Immigration detention is expensive and highly excessive. Asylum Seeker Resource Centre chief executive Kon Karapanagiotidis said his non-profit organisation cared for asylum-seekers in t community for just $4.80 per person per day, providing food, public transport, legal services, a GP and other services. He called for the current debate about onshore and offshore processing of asylum claims to be re-cast. "Both are unviable options... We think the alternative is community-based alternatives. We're wasting billions".
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Not Just Kinder, Also A Cheaper Solution
03/09/11 Jessica Irvine in The Sydney Morning Herald
Opinion piece evaluating the economics of Australian off-shore detention and processing of asylum seekers. Not only is on-shore processing significantly cheaper, 'it could mean the difference between fostering a new workforce, as opposed to the current system, whereby successful refugees emerge downtrodden after years in detention, suffering severe mental health issues and institutionalised to the idea of being dependant on others'.
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Detention Centres Under Pressure
02/09/11 Kirsty Needham in The Sydney Morning Herald
Australia's struggling immigration detention network to come under even more pressure from an expected surge in boat arrivals following the High Court's ban on sending asylum seekers to Malaysia. The report provides statistics of detainees as of August 25th 2011. These over crowded centres contain individuals experiencing serious mental health/other conditions which are being exacerbated by indefinite waiting periods and the bleak conditions of the detention environment.
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Asylum policy debate: we're being conned
17/1/2011 by Kate Gauthier (The Drum Unleashed)
17/1/2011 by Kate Gauthier (The Drum Unleashed)
Snappy sound grabs aimed at marginal seat voters have taken the place of well-considered policy proposals. In short, we've all been conned into thinking there is an actual debate about asylum policy when it's really just a political marketing campaign.
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Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
2/2/2011 newmatilda.com
Allegations of abuse and intimidation have emerged at the Serco-run detention facility at Leonora in remote Western Australia. New Matilda spoke to Victoria Martin-Iverson, who visited the centre last month.
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Big ideas: a sensible policy solution on asylum seekers
12/1/2011 by Kate Gauthier (The Punch)
The Labor Government has set itself up for failure by upholding the view that asylum seeking is a national security threat.
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Compassion of Season for Littlest Detainees
30/12/2010 Opinion piece in SMH by Jessica Perini on ChilOut's Christmas Toy Drive
About two weeks before Christmas I decided to send an email to five friends asking them each to send one package to children in immigration detention across Australia. I thought maybe five, 10 or 15 children might benefit. The response I received was so extraordinary that today I am wondering if we managed to reach all 888 of them .
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Asylum Seeker Policy in Australia: rights and wrongs
15/10/2011 by Kate Gauthier (Mosiac Magazine)
It is said that any civilized society can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable people. Asylum seekers, vilified by the media and feared by the public, make an excellent target for unscrupulous public figures who seek to gain power or position through a culture of fear.
It is said that any civilized society can be measured by how it treats its most vulnerable people. Asylum seekers, vilified by the media and feared by the public, make an excellent target for unscrupulous public figures who seek to gain power or position through a culture of fear.
Suffer the little children
30/09/2010 by Kate Gauthier (CPD Thinking Points)
There are 628 children in immigration detention. The Government claims that kids are not held behind razor wire. But does that mean it is humane? ChilOut's Kate Gauthier unpacks the language vs the reality of asylum seeking kids in detention. (First published in CPDs Thinking Points)
There are 628 children in immigration detention. The Government claims that kids are not held behind razor wire. But does that mean it is humane? ChilOut's Kate Gauthier unpacks the language vs the reality of asylum seeking kids in detention. (First published in CPDs Thinking Points)
Election promises on boats will not pass parliament
30/8/2010 by Kate Gauthier (CPD Thinking Points)
In the lead up to the election, we saw both major parties making policy pledges to stop asylum boats. Kate Gauthier looks at the numbers in a hung parliament and considers whether either major party can live up to their election promises.
Bring Out yer Dead Policies - Coalition Asylum Strategy
10/8/2010 by Kate Gauthier (CPD Thinking Points)
Abbott has pledged to stop the boats at all costs, but his policies have been tested by previous Coalition Governments - and failed. Real questions remain about the effectiveness and implementation of the Coalition's line on asylum seekers.
It takes a bleeding heart to see the bleedin' obvious
30/7/2010 by Kate Gauthier chapter in More Than Luck, published by the Centre for Policy Development)
Most policy reformers, especially social policy reformers, like to tell governments where they should spend more money. But when it comes to asylum seeker policy, reform advocates are not asking the government to spend more money; we are begging them to spend less.
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