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The Child and Family Welfare Association of Australia is the national peak body representing non-government organisations working with children and young people experiencing abuse and neglect and their families. The Association represents more than 80 organisations across Australia engaged in child and family welfare service provision, including each State and Territory peak child welfare association. The Association of Children Welfare Agencies (ACWA) is a founding state based peak member of CAFWAA.

We at the coalition for Justice for Refugees, make our submission on the belief that every child in Australia has the right to survival, participation and development and it is in the interest of the child and the rest of Australia that these basic needs are meet.

How can the baptized claim to welcome Christ if they close the door to the foreigner who comes knocking? " If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brothers or sisters in need, yet closes his heart against them, how does God's love abide in him?" (1 Jn 3:17)

As the Corrections system in Victoria does not provide services for children in immigration detention, it would appear that this Office has a limited to capacity to contribute. However, outside the boundaries of a formal submission I can provide you with information regarding recent developments in the management of immigration detainees within the prison system, and our approach to the management of children residing with a parent in custody.

The Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia commends the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Human Rights Commissioner Sev Ozdowski in particular, for instituting the Children in Immigration Detention Inquiry.

We commend HREOC for instituting this Inquiry and thank them for giving us the opportunity to make input on an issue which is of grave concern to the Co-operative which, for 23 years has been advocating for the rights and needs of immigrant children and their families in a diverse multicultural society.

"Protection is not a simple concession made to the refugee: he is not an object of assistance, but rather a subject of rights and duties. Each country has the responsibility to respect the rights of refugees and assure that they are respected as much as the rights of its own citizens" [1]

The Hunter Community Council was established in 1986 as a peak representative body to support and advocate on behalf of the non-government welfare sector in the Hunter region. In April of this year the Hunter Community Council held a forum attended by welfare agencies representing a wide range of services including: the youth sector, education, mental health, migrant centres and refugee resettlement services, the Catholic Social Justice Commission, and early childhood and family support services.

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international Catholic organisation whose mission is to accompany, serve and defend the rights of forcibly displaced people. It has a staff of over 600 full time personnel and is at work in over 60 countries. At the present time JRS has active programmes of social support and legal counselling in prisons and detention centres for asylum seekers in about 20 countries.

I refer to your letter of 1 March 2002 addressed to the Chief Executive of the Chief Minister's Department inviting input to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. I note that you also wrote to the ACT Departments of Education and Community Services, Health and Community Care and Justice and Community Safety.

As a counsellor of children and families at risk of child abuse and neglect, I have a number of concerns about the children being held in immigration detention in Australia and in our region on the request of Australian authorities. In my professional capacity I see children who have been abused by their Australian families. I find it appalling that Australia as a nation is now systematically abusing children whose parents have sought asylum here. In the following submission I offer suggestions under a number of headings:

We, the Solidarity Committee of the Marist Brothers Province of Melbourne, wish to make the following submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention.

The Melbourne Catholic Migrant & Refugee Office (MCMRO) provides advice and guidance from a Catholic perspective in response to policy and program issues relating to migrants and refugees.

The Mercy Refugee Service is part of the relief and development cross-cultural work of the Institute of Sisters of Mercy Australia. Mercy Refugee Service is entrusted to serve without discrimination the uprooted and displaced people in our world. It was established in 1983 to respond to the plight of refugees in south-east Asia. At that time volunteers were called on to provide health care, education, social welfare and counselling support to refugees in camps in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and in Cambodia.

The Multicultural Council of the Northern Territory's research indicates that as at 24 November 2001 a total of 7933 unlawful non-citizens were admitted to Australian detention centres in the 2000-01 financial year.

The National Council of Women of Australia is a voluntary organisation working for the advancement of women through a vast network of affiliated organisations & individual members.

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:

Rural Australians For Refugees Wangaratta Branch is not directly involved with children or adults in detention centres. Therefore our submission is very brief and comes from the desire to add to the growing voice of Australian citizens. We do not support the current mandatory detention of refugees and asylum seekers that is the present policy of government. We are not legally trained and write very much as a part of the rural community of Australia.