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We, the Social Action Committee of the CLRCV, wish to make a submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. Our message is simple. We believe that immigration detention is profoundly bad for children.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. HUMAN RIGHTS IMPLICATIONS FOR MINORS OF AUSTRALIA'S MANDATORY DETENTION 3. ADDITIONAL ISSUES FOR UNACCOMPANIED MINORS IN DETENTION 4. ALTERNATIVES TO DETENTION 5. CONCLUSION

The Commissioner will inquire into the adequacy and appropriateness of Australia's treatment of child asylum seekers and other children who are, or have been, held in immigration detention, including:

Australian Lawyers for Human Rights (ALHR) is a network of Australian lawyers interested in furthering awareness and advocacy of human rights in Australia. ALHR promotes the practice of human rights law in Australia and works with Australian and international human rights organisations to achieve this aim.

My name is Keysar Trad. I am the Vice President of the Lebanese Muslims Association in Sydney. The Lebanese Muslims Association was established in 1961 by a group of Lebanese Muslim citizens to advocate on behalf of Lebanese and other Muslims in the Australian community. We have over 1100 financial members and over tens of thousands who use our facilities on festive occasions, many or our members (financial and non financial) meet at our mosques five times a day to offer worship and over 5000 members meet every Friday at midday for worship services.

Comments are made from two perspectives; the first from Catholic chaplains who regularly visit the Villawood detention centre in Sydney's outer Western suburbs. The second perspective is that of the broader professional perspective of Centacare staff who provide care and protection to children

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.

The lack of coherence and logic in decisions as regards detainees ethnicity and the veracity of their stories - primary decision makers failure rate as compared to RRT decisions which saw many boys kept in detention for up to 12 months longer than boys who arrived at the same time from the same area on the same boat - some friends still remain in detention today up to two years later when the boys know they are Hazara with the same history and the same claim to protection - leading to complete distrust in the whole system

Thank you for the opportunity to address an issue, which I believe, is another stain on Australian history. The systematic neglect and abuse of children in our IDCs is shameful and must end. It is intolerable that our senior politicians claim that a simple majority gives them the mandate to practise policies that ignore established standards for the care and nurturing of children.

COMMISSIONER OZDOWSKI: We would like formally to open this Public Hearing in Melbourne on 31 May. My name is Sev Ozdowski and I am the Human Rights Commissioner. I am assisted by two Assistant Commissioners - to my right is Dr Trang Thomas who is also Professor of Psychology at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and to my left is Mrs Robin Sullivan, who is the Queensland Children's Commissioner. Also at the table are two counsels assisting.

Special thanks goes to Maritza Manojlovic, Michele Nardelli and Rosemary Thompson who skilfully helped me to elaborate the arguments of the paper. To the Middle Eastern new arrivals that warmly welcomed me into their lives, ready to reveal their deepest concerns in the belief that they would be taken seriously, I say thank you. My greatest thanks goes to Mohammed Amirghiasvand for inspiring me to continue working in this area.

1. Introduction 2. Adequacy of current educational provision 3. Educational programs in NSW government schools 4. Temporary Protection Visa Holders enrolled in government schools. 5. Cost of educating child asylum seekers and students on temporary protection visas 6. Support for children and families who have been released from detention 7. Recommendations Appendix 1

"There have been times in our history when Australia has been generous and open hearted and times when it has been very mean. In 1938 at the Evian Conference about dealing with Jewish and other refugees from Hitler, Australia took a flint hearted position, saying that we did not want to import Europe's problems, or to increase racial differences, and that refugees should get back in the queue.

The commissioner will inquire into the adequacy and appropriateness of Australia's treatment of child asylum seekers, and other children who are, or have been, held in immigration detention, including:

This submission is made by the Social Justice Committee of the Parish Council of the Anglican Parish of West Tamar, Tasmania, on behalf of the members of the Parish.

The Diocese of Parramatta covers the western part of Sydney including Castle Hill, Mt Victoria, Penrith, Blacktown, the Mt Druitt area, Windsor and Warragamba. It is a very multicultural area with a large indigenous population.

Staff in the Social Policy and Advocacy Research Centre, and the Youth Studies Flagship at the Australian Catholic University welcome the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's initiative in establishing an inquiry into children in Australia's immigration detention centres.

We needed more classrooms to run the classes so as to provide adequate contact time for both children and adults. To compensate for the lack of classrooms we used the messes and at times recreational rooms in the compounds. This didn’t provide nearly enough teaching venues and was really inappropriate as a teaching environment. Over the whole centre the total number of allocated classrooms (apart from the computer centres) in five compounds was five (three in the main compound, one in November compound, one in Mike compound and none in India and Oscar compounds).