ChilOut's original mission
Since the release of children and families into community detention in July 2005, ChilOut's mission has changed. Our original mission is included here for reference:
1. We are campaigning to get all children, together with their primary carers and accompanying families, out of immigration detention centres and into existing community support structures.
This includes all unaccompanied children. Our motivation is humanitarian and non-political.
2. We are opposed to the mandatory detention of asylum seekers and are particularly concerned about conditions under which children are detained, the length of their detention and the high security, prison-like centres in which they are held.
Physical, emotional and developmental damage caused by continued detention is well documented. Some children are on anti-depressants, many have been on hunger strikes and been caught in the middle of riots and fires. Children have self-harmed, e.g. sewing lips together, cutting arms, drinking shampoo, hanging themselves. Many suffer from Immigration Detention Stress Syndrome as documented in Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal. Release from detention is our primary aim. Our secondary aim is to make lives in detention more tolerable through outside contact, learning, play and entertainment.3. We also seek to correct inaccurate media coverage of asylum seekers and counter widespread misinformation.
Pejorative terms - such as �illegal immigrants� and �queue jumpers� - are used in the media and help justify harsh Government policies. In our view, once acquainted with the facts of detention Australians of good conscience will react as we do - with indignation, compassion and action.