Minister for Immigration, Senator Amanda Vanstone, answers questions on notice.
In Hansard, March 2004.
In part Vanstone replies: "My Department and the Detention Services Provider (DSP) are also aware of their responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC) and do their utmost to ensure that children are treated in accordance with the provisions of the Convention."
You can read excerpts from the UNCROC here. If you believe that we are NOT doing our utmost to ensure children are treated in accordance with UNCROC, please write to the Minister and express your views.
Immigration Detention - the Current Position
Dr. Sev Ozdowski, HREOC, October 2003.
Australia's Migration Act requires the detention of all men, women and children who arrive in Australia without a visa; whether or not they are a flight, security or health risk; for indefinite periods of time and without any real review of that detention by a court.
HREOC, along with UN human rights bodies, international lawyers and human rights NGOs have been saying for years that Australia's mandatory detention legislation is a flagrant breach of a person's fundamental protection against arbitrary detention and the associated right of timely review of such detention by a court.
However, because these fundamental rights are not protected by Australia's Constitution or a Bill of Rights, it is extremely difficult to successfully challenge these laws; although another round of challenges on behalf of detainees, is currently before the High Court and we all await their outcome with interest.
Thomas Keneally's Message to the Rally to Welcome Refugees, 23 June 2002.
Download a copy: ThomasKeneallyJune2002.pdf
"Oh but, say the apologists, we cannot let the children go they would be separated from their parents! We say, Dont let only the children go. After proper processing, and with proper guarantees of the kind which operate in other societies, in liberal democracies from the Arctic region southwards, even with us standing surety, let the families go. Pull down the razor wire which disgraces our beloved earth!"
Refugees and asylum seekers
A Statement by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, 26 March 2002.
Many asylum seekers, including whole families, have been detained for more than a year. The Church's pastoral care of asylum seekers convinces us that detention, beyond the minimum time necessary for carrying out security and health checks, identity checks and the lodgement of applications for Protection Visas, is deeply destructive of human dignity. This is particularly true of children. After a minimum time these people should be released into the community and be obliged to contact the immigration authorities on a regular basis.
Sister Susan Connelly speaks at Palm Sunday 2002, Sydney.
Let us not be afraid of being "bleeding hearts", if only because bleeding hearts can see the bleedin' obvious, which is that human beings have hearts of flesh, not stone, and that the only true humanity is that which weeps at cruelty and injustice and puts itself on the line to reverse the inhumanity which constantly dogs us.
We can learn from the children
Speeches by school children, ChilOut SAD Rally, March 7, 2002.
My opinion of the Prime Minister locking up innocent people in detention centres is just a few words; what a I-don't-care-how-other-people-feel-Prime Minister!!
Wake up Australia
Extract from Justice Marcus Einfeld's speech, 20th Annual Sambell Oration, 17 October 2001.
Download a copy: WakeUpAustralia.pdf
People seeking refugee asylum are not illegal migrants. In making their applications for refugee status, they are doing something expressly permitted by Australian and international law. No one suggests that we should have open borders. There must be controls on movements of people in and out of countries not their own. But the current problems have been caused by many events in many countries, not all of their own making, and are not within the power of any one country to regulate.
Children in Detention
by Jacqui Everitt
Paper presented at Conference at UNSW, December 2001.
Download a copy: JEverittDec2001.pdf
Is there a country which is prepared to lock up open-endedly children who have been charged with NO crime? Is there a country on earth which removes fundamental human rights from all the children of a particular social group? Is there a country or culture that does not recognise the vulnerability and special needs of all children?