National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
This statement was provided by Mark Huxstep to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
STATUTORY DECLARATION
I, Mark Huxstep, of [address removed], Registered Nurse, do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:
Background
1. I make this statement for the purposes of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention.
2. I was employed between August 2000 and February 2001 by Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) at the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (WIRPC) as a registered nurse.
3. I completed three six week contracts at WIRPC. For five weeks of my final contract I was employed in an acting capacity as the Manager of the Medical Centre at WIRPC.
4. I am currently employed as a registered nurse at Tweed Heads District Hospital.
5. Working at WIRPC was an extremely stressful experience. As a result of the stress of working at the WIRPC I was diagnosed May 2001 with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I received counselling for a period of eight months and have been taking anti-depressant medication for twelve months. In the period since I ceased employment at WIRPC, I have not been able to work full time, as a consequence of the PTSD.
Conditions at WIRPC
6. The physical environment at WIRPC was extremely harsh. There was no grass, the ground being hard packed dust and rubble.
7. The temperatures at WIRPC were extreme, with a day of 61 degrees being registered in January 2001, and freezing temperatures during winter. Buildings were generally not air-conditioned.
8. There was very little for children to do at WIRPC. They spent most of their time in their dongas in the company of extremely distressed adults. I believe that this had a detrimental impact on the children.
9. The most significant stressors for detainees held at WIRPC was the lack of information about their situation, and uncertainty about the length of time for which they would be held in immigration detention. This caused a slow and steady degradation of the mental health of all detainees.
Access to health care
10. The initial medical assessment for detainees was often carried out in conditions not appropriate for children. Medical checks of new arrivals were required to be completed within 72 hours. In January 2001 a group of new arrivals were processed in the Sierra compound at WIRPC. The processing was extremely slow as there were only two interpreters available. This led to the detainees, including pregnant women, infants and children waiting in the sun all day for their medical assessment. There were toilet facilities available, but these were extremely unhygienic. When nursing staff offered the women and children drinks and lollies, they were reprimanded by ACM officers for inappropriate and excessive friendliness with the detainees.
11. Detainees were not allowed to take medication to their accommodation blocks. This led to lengthy and inappropriate delays in the distribution of medication.
12. For example, in one instance a child with an ear infection had to represent four times a day for antibiotics that could only be distributed from the main Medical Centre because they required refrigeration. On one occasion the child and his mother had to queue for three hours in the rain at night to receive the medication, as there was only ever one nurse on duty at night. This caused the child and the mother great distress.
13. This example is one of many where detainees and their children had to queue for hours at night to receive medication.
14. The ability of detainees to access the Medical Centre was compromised by ACM officers. Detainees were regularly turned away by ACM officers. On occasion, they were incorrectly told that the clinic was closed, that there were too many people at the clinic, or told that they were not sick and that they didn't need to see the doctor.
Medical facilities
15. During my period of employment at WIRPC there was only one sink with only cold water in the Medical Centre. This led to unhygienic practice, for example the making up of formula milk for babies in the same sink where faeces were decanted into pots prior to being sent to pathology.
16. During my first two contracts at Woomera there were no sterilization facilities in the Medical Centre. During my last contract there was a sterilization machine, however, there was no instruction booklet, no indicators that sterilization had been completed and no records kept of sterilization procedures.
Staffing
17. There were significant shortages of medical staff at WIRPC, particularly during my last contract when I was acting manager of the Medical Centre.
18. For example there was a three week stretch December 2000 to January 2001 when there were no mental health nurses or psychologists on site. This led to other nursing staff providing treatment for conditions which they were not qualified or experienced enough to manage.
19. There were always more people waiting to see staff from the Medical Centre than we had time to provide for. This led to long queues at the Medical Centre.
20. There was inadequate access to interpreters in the Medical Centre. There was supposed to be an interpreter in the medical centre every morning while the doctor was there. This was not always the case.
21. Although we had access to phone interpreters, we did not have the use of a conference phone, and it was not always appropriate to use a phone interpreter when detainees were in physical and mental distress.
22. Consequently, children were often used to interpret for their parents. Children were not used as interpreters when complex matters were being discussed.
Relationship between DIMIA/ACM and health staff
23. The ability of the medical staff to provide appropriate care for detainees was compromised by ACM staff and management.
24. ACM officers regularly questioned the judgement of medical centre staff in front of detainees. For example officers would say 'What is that drug for?', 'Why do they need that treatment?' or 'He/she isn't sick?' Also, officers would sometimes question our treatments of detainees after hours at the Eldo Hotel when they were obviously inebriated. For example they would tell us that 'They faked it' and that we gave the detainees excessive care.
25. Regularly, detainees would be recommended for psychiatric assessment, but this would not take place as there was nobody available to drive the person to see the psychiatrist.
26. On one occasion, an appointment had been made by the midwife with an obstetrician/gynaecologist in Port Augusta for a pregnant woman who had experienced some spotting, and for five or six other pregnant women detainees. This appointment was not met because the ACM officer responsible for transport had not organised a driver for the appointment.
27. Written complaints were often made by ACM officers about medical staff. Complaints were regularly made that medical centre staff were too familiar with detainees. Complaints were also made that medical centre staff were spending too long with patients, often patients who were presenting with psychological disturbance and who needed lengthy consultations.
28. During my first contract, a conversation between myself and other nursing staff over dinner at the local restaurant was taken down by an ACM officer and given to ACM management. This environment of surveillance and general intimidation by ACM officers contributed to the stress of working at WIRPC.
29. Medical treatment of detainees was on occasion vetoed by ACM and DIMIA staff on grounds of cost. For example, during my employment at WIRPC it was recommended that numerous detainees be provided with prescription glasses. A submission for this treatment had to be made to ACM. In the six months that I worked at WIRPC no detainee was provided with prescription glasses. This expense was deemed as unnecessary by ACM and DIMIA.
30. While I was manager of the Medical Centre, I instructed staff that if a detainee needed hospital treatment at night they were to be transported in an ambulance, as the one nurse on duty could not leave the centre. The necessity of this practice was questioned by ACM and DIMIA on grounds of cost.
Nutrition
31. Medical centre staff regularly heard complaints from detainees about the quality of the food that was provided at WIRPC. The food that was provided in my opinion was neither nutritionally adequate nor culturally appropriate. Detainees' requests for simple food items such as rice, yoghurt and lemons were ignored.
32. Detainees were only allowed 250ml of milk and one piece of fruit per day. This was not adequate for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children.
33. To overcome this, nurses would take milk to the medical centre and provide to women and children.
34. Medical centre staff regularly wrote letters requesting special meals for detainees, particularly women and children. The ACM centre manager, through the health manager directed us to stop writing letters requesting special meals.
35. Midwives oversaw the distribution of formula to mothers with infants. Bottles were made up in the clinics. During the day women would have to come to the clinic to receive the bottle. At night, bottles were made up by the midwives and given to the guards in each compound to distribute to mothers. Sometimes bottles were given to the wrong people, too many bottles were given to some mothers, or bottles were given on request to toddlers rather than infants. This meant that on some occasions there was not adequate formula for infants. There was no monitoring of the distribution of infant formula.
Riots/Violence
36. Rioting at WIRPC had a significant impact on children. Although families did try to stay away from the rioting, in many cases there was nowhere for them to go.
37. Following the rioting at the centre, children were noticeably increasingly reticent to communicate, introverted, quiet, and shy.
38. In late August, during rioting at the centre I was in the company of an ACM officer when he was told by one of his superiors that Minister Ruddock had authorised the use of firearms in the centre if detainees breached the perimeter of the centre. The guard who I was with subsequently said 'We'll shoot over their head to scare them should they breach the perimeter, but we'll aim very low.'
Child protection
39. During my first two contracts with ACM, medical staff were instructed that they were not allowed to report child protection concerns directly to FAYS, but that we should report to management who would then notify FAYS. This requirement was detailed in the ACM policy manual. This policy was changed in early 2001 following the expression of concern from medical staff. Medical staff were then allowed to notify FAYS, and subsequently notify the ACM centre manager that they had done so.
40. In January 2001 I notified ACM management of an alleged instance of sexual assault of an unaccompanied minor. This incident was investigated by the South Australian police and FAYS were notified by ACM staff.
I make this solemn declaration by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 as amended and subject to the penalties provided by that Act for the making of false statements in statutory declarations, conscientiously believing the statements contained in this declaration to be true in every particular.
This statement was signed on 16 July 2002.
Last Updated 10 October 2002.
