Human Rights Reporting

Spring 2002 Student Work

Experts fear for the mental health of the children among Australia’s detained boat people

By Roxanna Sherwood

Some liken Australia’s immigrant detention centers to concentration camps of World War II. Some call them prison camps. The Australian federal government calls them necessary. Australia’s detention centers house the country’s illegal immigrants who arrive usually by boat in a desperate attempt to flee often violent conditions in their native lands. They come in search of a new life through political asylum and settlement. The majority is from Southeast Asia, mainly from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. The reality of Australia for illegal immigrants makes many of them wish they had never come. Whole families arrive and are shocked by what they face. For the children whose only glimpse of land and sky is from behind razor sharp barbed wire fences, the reality is harsher, the confusion greater and the future dauntingly bleak.

To date, Australian mainland detention centers are home to some 365 children. The country doesn’t seem to want them.

Prime Minister John Howard told reporters in January that people should know that Australia is not a welcome place for arriving illegal immigrants and their children. The irony is that immigrants have been arriving on its shores for thousands of years.

It is believed that the first Aborigines arrived in Australia, possibly on foot from Asia, in 50,000 BC, and the arrival of the British more than 51,000 years later was an invasion of their land. The killing and exploitation of aborigines at the hands of white settlers is a long and dark part of Australian history. Prisons themselves are a fundamental aspect of the country’s history. Australia was founded in 1788 as a British prison colony. Prisoners then, like present-day immigrant detainees, hardly knew where they were, let alone of their crucial contribution to the culture and future of the country. They were murderers, rapists, and convicts of all sorts. Detainees there today are held for having done no more than arrive illegally. Prime Minister Howard has publicly deemed them “queue jumpers” -- justifying the country’s hard line immigration policy.

“As unlawful arrivals in Australia, Australian law requires that they remain in detention while their immigration status is resolved,” said Paul Oliver, spokesperson for Australia’s Immigration Department.

Australia’s Migration Act 1958 requires that all non-Australians who are illegally in mainland Australia be detained and that unless they are granted permission to remain in Australia, they must be removed as soon as practical. People who are not in serious danger do not meet the criteria for refugee status. They are detained until this determination can be made.

According to statistics obtained by We Are All Boat People, an Australian grassroots organization, just 11 of more than 13,000 people who sought asylum in Australia last year 2001 were rejected on “character grounds”. Only one was regarded as a security risk because of suspected terrorist links. There remains no evidence that any asylum seekers have any connection to terrorism.

The Department of Immigration, Multicultural, and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) reports that as of November 2001, there were 2,736 asylum seekers being held in Australian detention centers. A total of 521 were under the age of 18 and 53 were unaccompanied. 4,174 reached Australia by boat or plane last year. Generally, 84% of all asylum seekers are found to be legitimate refugees and are able to stay in Australia.

The majority of the imprisoned immigrants will ultimately be released into Australian society.

Australia is a country of 19.3 million people.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that worldwide there are some 22.3 million refugees or people seeking settlement, with 5.1 million of them from Afghanistan alone. In the past ten years Australia has provided more than 130,000 refugees and other persons of concern with resettlement.

Critics of Australia’s policy of mandatory detention, including Amnesty International, claim that the policy contravenes the UN Convention on Human Rights. Some believe that the terrorist attacks of September 11th have made an already draconian system even more so.

“Racist rhetoric and action against Muslims and Middle Eastern people were fuelled by the terrorist attack on the United States,” said Don McMaster, author of Asylum Seekers. He believes that his country is inherently racist and that that racism was given a platform on which to flourish in Australia post-September 11th, providing a perfect excuse to condone it.

“Ironically, the asylum seekers from Afghanistan were escaping persecution from the very same forces that the West declared war on,” said McMaster.

The treatment of white illegal immigrants in Australia differs significantly from the treatment of other immigrant groups. In 2001, according to immigration statistics, there were 6,160 Britons who overstayed their visas in Australia, and as many other Europeans. None went to detention camps, in fact, many were granted ‘bridging visas.’

“In a world reeling from the effects of the attacks of September 11th,” said Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan in a March statement to the press, “the need to uphold human rights and humanitarian principles has never been greater.”

Afghan immigrants began arriving on Australia’s southern coastline more steadily by the end of 1999, putting a strain on the country’s six mainland detention centers. To handle the increase in immigrants, a small camp was built on the western outskirts of the site of Australia’s first atomic tests, a former missile-testing range in the remote South Australian desert called Woomera. It quickly became a fully integrated refugee processing and detention center, holding up to1,500 asylum seekers at a time.

The Woomera detention center was recently the focus of international attention. There have been a number of protests so far in 2002 in Australian prison camps, primarily at Woomera. Sixteen days of hunger strikes and suicide attempts at that center in late January made headlines around the world.

Many Australians criticized detained parents who had sewn together their own lips and the lips of their children as a form of protest, calling them child abusers. Some Australians argue that the detainees’ display of self-harm is an act, emotional blackmail, and not the consequence of ill treatment.

In late March, a raucous demonstration facilitated the escape of 11 detainees when protesters pulled the fencing low enough for the prisoners to climb over the razor sharp barbed wire to escape into the barren Australian desert.

Dr. Michael Dudley, senior lecturer of psychiatry at University of New South Whales, thinks that the Australian government attempts to further its deterrence policy by engaging in “state-sponsored trauma.” Community stereotypes, ignorance, and a lack of community leadership all contribute, he argues.

Many of the detainees are eager just to know something about the status of their applications for asylum, whether they are refused protection or not. Reports suggest that some find the prospect of deportation a more attractive alternative than remaining in one of the country’s detention centers indefinitely. Some are said to remain in prison camps for more than four years without any word as to their fates.

After her visit to Woomera Immigration Detention Center, Secretary General Khan issued strong statements in early March. “It is obvious that prolonged periods of detention, characterized by frustration and insecurity, are doing further damage to individuals who have fled grave human rights abuses.”

Until the incidents at Woomera, media and public attention on the detention centers was relatively minimal. Public and media access to the camps is extremely restricted, and even more so after September 11th.

The government introduced a number of Bills late last year regarding asylum seekers. One called for an increase in prison terms for those who flee detention, and further restriction of already difficult visitor access to detention centers. The Border Protection Bill, the Migration Amendment Bills 1 and 2, as well as implementation of anti-terrorist legislation were put into place as a result of September 11th. These actions could suggest the government’s initiatives to restrict civil liberties and human rights.

“The detention policy has failed as a deterrent and succeeded only as punishment. How much longer will children and their families be punished for seeking safety from persecution?” said Khan in a statement to the press.

The Woomera detention center costs the government $104 per detainee per day to maintain. Detention centers offshore are more costly, according to Australian immigration department statistics. The facilities on Cocos Island and on Christmas Island cost $236 and $293 per detainee per day respectively. The conditions at these offshore centers are rumored to be worse than those of mainland detention centers.

A recent report in the Medical Journal of Australia written by two psychologists reported on the conditions at the Villawood camp. “The physical environment is intimidating. We have observed harsh and uncompassionate handling of asylum seekers by staff.” Many cases of severe depression have been reported.

The government has its own tactical stance on the situation, taking it on as an issue in the country’s recent elections. PM Howard admitted in early February that his account of arriving refugees throwing their own children overboard on October 7th was false, though he believed the account to be true at the time. He is now being investigated by the national senate, in what is an impeachable offense, for lying about the photograph showing the children of arriving illegal immigrants floating in the water dead. The incident is known in Australia as “children overboard.”

Dr. Michael Dudley is worried that detainees suffer severe psychological effects resulting from a variety of negatives, beginning with the “impoverished, and unacceptably institutional and depersonalizing environments, including the day-today management of detainees in psychologically harmful ways.”

Though Australia is criticized for its immigration policy in general, the UN Human Rights Committee and other human rights groups are particularly concerned with the detention of children. They suspect Australia is in violation of the Convention on Human Rights for holding prisoners regardless of age.

“It is cruel to keep innocent children in detention at the best of times and the best way to deal with the detainees would be to have their application for refugee status or asylum processed as quickly as possible. I’m not talking about a softer approach – I’m talking about a quicker one,” said South Australian Premier Mike Rann in April.

In November 2001, the Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Sev Ozdowski, announced a major national Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention. He hopes to report his findings to the Inquiry to Federal Parliament by the end of 2002.

The Article 37b of the Convention on the Rights of a Child states:

No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.

Australia’s Minister for Youth, Stephanie Key, is outspoken on the issue of children detainees. “Australia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child – and all of us have a duty to ensure the children are safe, protected and their rights are being met,” she said in April.

“The government takes its duty of care to all detainees, especially children, very seriously,” said Paul Oliver. Australian government officials are dismissive of claims of human rights violations against them. “The department insists that providers of detention services in Australia’s detention centers offer appropriate facilities and services to meet the special needs of children and families.”

A report on Woomera released in mid-April by a team of psychiatrists hired by the South Australian government revealed the contrary. The findings showed that severe mental illness is pervasive at the camp. It reported that children there are prone to suicidal thoughts, depression, and disturbing behavior.

Toddlers’ meals were restricted to set adult meal periods during which if they were not hungry children simply did not eat all. “Anyone who is a parent knows that it is both impractical and cruel on the child not to allow the child to eat when hungry,” said Stephanie Key in response to the finding.

“It hasn’t helped that the children are living in a center that is in a flat, featureless environment, far from ordinary Australian suburban life, in a region of extreme climatic change, surrounded by high fences and razor wire,” Key said of the children detainees at Woomera.

In some cases, the prison camp environment is all the children have ever known. Reports released by teams of child protection officers, child psychiatrists and the United Nations Association of Australia have included graphic pictures drawn by children detainees reveal their preoccupation with barbed wire and feature corrections officers in riot gear.

According to Dr. Michael Dudley, children regularly witness attempted suicides, self-mutilations, and other acts of violence in which security officers wear full riot gear. This also causes deep distress in parents who can feel helpless at not being able to protect their children from seeing suicides and suicide attempts. Parents, according to Dudley, already suffer because their parental role in prison camps has been completely undermined. He said that children expressed suicidal tendencies in interviews they had with him and in their drawings and writings.

Dr. Dudley and a team of child protection officers visited detention centers in late 2001 as part of a long-term investigation into children detainees. “Most children we saw appeared depressed and traumatized,” Dudley said. “Younger children were mute, anorexic, withdrawn, wet their beds or had nightmares. Older children were visibly anorexic and depressed.”

Dudley has heard reports of children frequently being called ‘towel heads’ and ‘little queue jumpers’ and ‘little terrorists’ by Australian Correctional Management guards. He sees many aspects of detention as extremely detrimental to the mental health of children. “Children in detention have the dehumanizing experience of being identified by number not name,” said Dr. Michael Dudley, using one example.

Dudley says children detainees are vulnerable to mental health problems before they reach Australia. They already carry the burden of trauma from exposure to horror in their homelands, which is compounded by prolonged detention and the helplessness they witness in their parents.

One case Dr. Dudley observed involved a father’s grief over his badly behaved toddler who was born into life as a detainee. “You see his behavior?” the father reportedly told Dudley during an interview. “It is because we are sad and weeping all the time. He has lost his trust in us. We came here hoping to be free, but this is worse. There is a big possibility that I kill myself here. I am a dead man, every day I am dying slowly. What have I brought my family to?”

Dudley has evaluated teenagers who had watched their father make a significant attempt at his own life after being denied refugee status after seven months of waiting. According to Dudley, the father later told psychiatrists, “Even if we get our freedom, we will be mad people by then.”

Another father reportedly said that the situation in his camp was turning everyone into “savages” and that they are all treated as “less than human.” Conditions at the camps are said to be cramped and unsanitary. Dudley says that in the past 18 months, there have been 7 suicides at the camps (overdose, hanging, jumping, and hunger), there is at least one major suicide attempt per day at Woomera alone, and that many children there are suicidal.

Dr. Dudley visited Villawood detention center in October. He had half an hour to determine the mental state of Nashwan Al’Abadey, 17. Nashwan who had previously made two suicide attempts by hanging, reportedly told Dudley that he continued to have suicidal thoughts. He said that he, and other family members, had been severely beaten by guards on various occasions, including once after Nashwan was banging on the door of his cell because he needed to go to the toilet. “After this fence, there’s no life, it’s like hell,” Nashwan reportedly told Dr. Dudley.

Dudley believes that children should be removed from detention centers with their families immediately, and that unaccompanied children detainees be released into foster care.

“Whether the detainees stay or whether they are sent home, the turnaround time for their applications seems unduly long – and that is not fair on the children being forced to sit around for months on end in a harsh and restricted environment,” said South Australian Premier Mike Rann in mid-April.

As of February 2002, the total number of women and children in mainland detention centers was 637. The number is made up of 259 women, 224 boys and 141 girls.

In response to the ethical questioning of children detainees, the federal government along with Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA), has made “alternative detention arrangements” for some women and children detained at Woomera. According to Paul Oliver, the project enables some women and their children to live in family-style accommodation away from the center while remaining in immigration detention. It is uncertain if the project will be transferred to another camp if Woomera is shutdown as is currently rumored.

The solution is not only limited in that it is available only to candidates from the Woomera detention center, but is also only an option for 25 women and children out of the total women and children detainee population of 637.

Australia will spend $200 million on the detention of asylum seekers in fiscal year 2001. The federal government has commissioned the construction of 4,300 accommodations for asylum seekers in the South Australian desert. This is while PM Howard is attributing the recent drop in boat-people arrivals to Australia’s strict immigration policy. Some Australians who oppose the detention of immigrants wonder why a plan to build more camps is necessary if Howard thinks his hard line stance on immigration is effective. The decrease in illegal immigrant boat arrivals is more widely believed due to the hurricane season and to the world’s climate of fear post-September 11th.

A reporter for the Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt, is thrilled that not a single boatload of asylum seeking immigrants has arrived Australia in the past two months. His attitude is common in the Australian media and public. He takes the position that most who oppose Howard’s policy on detainees, intend to paint Australia in a negative light. “It is a popular sport among the cultural elite to portray Australia as what she is not - a racist country,” he said. “I guess, among other things, that crying racist is an instantaneous and effortless way to feel virtuous.”

But according to author Don McMaster, Australia is racist and in forty to fifty years, historians will be describing this time as a very dark period in Australian history.

The children who got their start in the island’s detention centers will likely remember too.

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