Our goals

  • Australia treat every child seeking asylum with dignity and in line with our international obligations.
  • Federal legislation to ensure no child is detained in an Australian immigration detention centre (or any such renamed facility) for more than 14 days. Any facility children are kept in should be appropriate and the care for unaccompanied minors particularly considered.
  • The appointment of a Federal Children's Commissioner and the Minister for Immigration cease to be the guardian of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Australia.
ChilOut will exist until the best interests of children are truly upheld in all aspects of Australia's asylum policies and practices.
We are a not-for-profit community group who seek to increase public awareness by providing accurate information showing what is happening to children inside our immigration detention centres (IDCs). We hold to account those responsible for the gap between what policy promises and delivers.
 

ChilOut's History

2001 - ChilOut formed. The suffering of 6 year old Shayan Badraie was aired on ABC's Four Corners. Very quickly ChilOut drew the support of many thousands of Australian parents and citizens who were against the detention of children. 

2005 - Our campaign was put on hold after amendments were made to the Migration Act. Following a HREOC report, children would now only be detained as a last resort. All children were released from secure detention facilities and the ChilOut Board, volunteers and supporters sighed a big happy sigh.

2008 - ALP Government releases its Key Immigration Detention Values statement. Essentially a great set of policy intentions, this stated that children (including foreign fishers) would not be held in IDCs and that for all people, detention in IDCs would be used 'as a last resort and for the shortest practicable time'. The reality however is that these values have never been put into place. 
It was also in 2008 that the Government opened the Christmas Island Detention Centre and began detaining children there. Despite the many names given to types of detention, ChilOut maintains that asylum seeker children there are in detention plain and simple. HREOC has clearly stated that asylum seeker children should not be held on Christmas Island.
 
2009 - now Although there has been no official change to 2005 amendments or the values statement, children are being detained as the first option and often for lengthy periods. Unaccompanied minors as young as 6 years old are being held in remote, completely inappropriate conditions and the known damage to children is wilfully continuing every day on Christmas Island and around Australia. So, here we are again, ChilOut is revived and we will campaign to ensure the rights of these children are upheld.
Who are these children?
They are aged zero to eighteen, they have fled war zones, watched family members killed or persecuted, or who have been subject to persecution and harm themselves. Many are alone, they are frightened, they are traumatised. They are incarcerated by Australia. We will endeavour to provide you with the most up to date statistics as possible on how many children are suffering in detention at any one time.