Search results

The Refugee Council of Australia welcomes the Inquiry by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission into Children in Immigration Detention. In our opinion, this is a very timely and important Inquiry into an area of great significance to Australia as a nation and to the way that Australia is perceived internationally.

I taught a small group of students (approx.12) for 3 and a half weeks at Port Hedland Detention Centre during March 2002. I am a qualified secondary E.S.L. and English teacher and have taught since 1987. I've taught mainstream English up to Year 12 and E.S.L to European, Asian and Middle-Eastern students in Melbourne and Darwin and I've taught on Aboriginal communities and have some understanding of Primary curriculum and the needs of younger students. I hope you find the following information relevant.

The Sabean Mandaean Association in Australia was founded in 1982. The Association’s financial and non-financial membership is around 2,000 persons. Inter alia, the Association looks after the humanitarian, spiritual, and social needs of Mandaean asylum seekers who have settled or who wish to settle in Australia.

1. Save the Children Save the Children is the world's largest independent child development organisation, with 32 member countries and programs in over 100 countries. Save the Children works for:

1. I am a qualified youth worker who was employed by Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) at the Woomera Immigration Reception and Processing Centre (the WIRPC) from May 2000 to January 2002.

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 Social Justice In Early Childhood Group (SJIECG) was formed in 1996 and is made up of early childhood professionals focussed on social justice issues as they relate to children and their families. The group aims to raise the awareness of social justice issues within the early childhood profession. The group membership includes teachers, students, childrens services managers, additional needs workers and administrators. Group members are based in Sydney, but work in local, state and national services.

This submission aims to highlight a number of issues for children in immigration detention arising from the Department of Human Services' (DHS) involvement in child protection, health service provision to children and their families, settlement support and care of unattached minors.

The current submission recognises the need to move beyond mere critique of the status quo and focus resources on the development of viable alternatives. To be feasible any such model must satisfy the legitimate concerns of the government while upholding the fundamental right of freedom of movement.

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.

1. I have been awarded a Bachelor of Science from Aberdeen University, and a Masters of Agricultural Science, Doctorate of Philosophy and Diploma of Education from the University of Adelaide. I received my TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) qualification at the Adelaide TAFE Institute. 2. I have taught agriculture at the Roseworthy Campus of the University of Adelaide from 1974 to 1994. I have also taught for two years at secondary school level and lectured part-time for a year at the Adelaide TAFE Institute.

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).

In regard to the payment of $1 an hour. It's true there was no actual payment in cash terms but the equivalent rate of one point to one dollar allowed the detainees to purchase goods according to the number of points they had gained. I think it is a mere technicality and that, argued in a court of law, they were being paid for their assistance. The perception anyway from the detainees and ourselves was that they were being paid at the rate of $1 an hour. In one case that I know, a detainee teacher bought more than his points value in dollar terms. In his account he had some of his own money.

2. Recognises the obligations of the Australian Federal Government as a signatory, on 22nd August, 1990, to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as at 15th October 1996 (187), this coming into force on 16th January 1991.

It must also be recognised that many children in detention centres have been deeply damaged - further trauma could be avoided, in part, by prudent selection and training of staff and guards. It needs to be assured that only staff who have learned to respect relevant cultures, religious traditions and are knowledgeable of the human rights of asylum seekers and the often traumatic conditions of countries from which the people have fled and been exposed to, will be selected for employment.

Australia is a signatory to a number of International Conventions, which are relevant to mandatory detention of children in Australia’s immigration detention centres. Under International law, each of the conventions that Australia has ratified is binding on the Australian state, which is obliged to bring its domestic laws into conformity with their stipulations. In Australia, International Conventions do not have legal force in domestic law, and cannot be directly applied by the domestic courts in Australia, unless the Australian Parliament enacts them into legislation.

Although it is not possible to precisely specify all the circumstance that lead people to arrive in Australia through people smuggling routes, there can be no doubt that they undertake perilous journeys which put their lives and that of accompanying family members at risk. Given the very high rates of approval for those who have sought asylum in Australia through these routes, it is reasonable to assume that most detainees have fled their countries for reasons of persecution.

4. I was the Business Manager at the Woomera Immigration, Reception and Processing Centre (WIRPC) from May 2000 to the end of May 2001. I was the senior DIMIA official at the WIRPC.

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