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Despite the significant positive developments of the past two years, the Commission remains seriously concerned about some aspects of Australian law and policy on asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detention. The Commission is primarily concerned about the prolonged or indefinite detention and lack of durable solutions or substantive visa pathways for certain groups of people in immigration detention. These include stateless persons; refugees who have received adverse security assessments; and refugees who are of interest to or have been charged by the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Every morning our people would crush charcoal and mix that with animal fat and smother that all over us, so that when the police came they could only see black children in the distance. We were told always to be on the alert and, if white people came, to run into the bush or run and stand behind the trees as stiff as a poker, or else hide behind logs or run into culverts and hide. Often the white people - we didn't know who they were - would come into our camps. And if the Aboriginal group was taken unawares, they would stuff us into flour bags and pretend we weren't there.

The meeting was facilitated by Omeima Sukkarieh and Susanna Iuliano from HREOC and attended by 13 invited participants from the Canberra Islamic Centre.

There is no task more important than building a world in which all of our children can grow up to realise their full potential in health, peace and dignity. [1]

<ul> <li><a href="#a12-1">12.1 Accommodation</a></li> <li><a href="#a12-2">12.2 Facilities</a></li> <li><a href="#a12-3">12.3 Provision of clothing and footwear </a></li> <li><a href="#a12-4">12.4 Recreation and play </a></li> <li><a href="#a12-5">12.5 Education</a></li> <li><a href="#a12-6">12.6 Security measures </a></li> <li><a href="#a12-7">12.7 Policy guiding the transfer of children to Nauru</a></li> <li><a href="#a12-8">12.8 Impact of detention on children </a></li> <li><a href="#a12-9">12.9 Transfer of unaccompanied children</a></li></ul>

While feedback in relation to the legal system was actively sought throughout all of the consultations, a number of targeted consultation sessions with individuals and organisations specifically involved or engaged in the legal system were also undertaken. These included:

Commissioners: DR SEV OZDOWSKI, Human Rights Commissioner MRS ROBIN SULLIVAN, Queensland Children's Commissioner PROFESSOR TRANG THOMAS, Professor of Psychology, Melbourne Institute of Technology MS VANESSA LESNIE, Secretary to the Inquiry