 Australia: A place to call home? |
Issue 83 |
Refugees
"The last thing refugees want is to be refugees. The first thing most of
them want is to be able to rebuild their lives in safety and dignity.
They want a home."
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The government has taken your son away, almost certainly killed. Their children, Fatima and Tariq, are now orphans. You as their grandparents want to protect them at any cost. You find some people who will save them. They will for a price, take them to Indonesia and put them on a boat so that they will have a chance of a new life in freedom and safety in Australia. Fatima is 15 and Tariq is 11. They arrive on the coast of Australia and are taken to a detention centre.
There they stay with no freedom and no safety. They are hoping that their grandparents will join them so that they will be a family again. They are unable to contact their grandparents. They don't know what has happened to them. They may be still in Afghanistan or they may be on their way to Australia. They have no way of knowing for sure. Fatima and Tariq are desperately worried. They have nobody to turn to for support.
Children at Port Hedland
Picture Credit: Chilout
Faisal was 4 years old when he arrived in Australia. His parents risked everything to escape from Iran. They had been unable to get passports or exit visas due to their political activities. They too were in search of a new life protected from persecution. This was not to be. The family were caught up in riots in Woomera detention centre.
Faisal witnessed such events as security guards wearing riot gear, wielding batons and bursting into his room. He saw another detainee lock himself into his room and set it alight. He saw another detainee threaten to slash himself with broken glass. After this he was so traumatised the authorities transferred the family to Villawood only for Faisal to witness a man slashing his wrists. Faisal stopped eating and drinking. He even stopped speaking. He was hospitalised 8 times. He was then put into foster care. He was separated from his family against all advice.
There are many similar stories that could be told about the thousands of children who have been locked in detention centres.
They escape brutal regimes like that of the Taliban in Afghanistan or that of Saddam Hussein in Iraq only to face the trauma and cruelty inflicted upon these same innocent children in our country which prides itself on its record of supporting human rights. This is all in the name of protecting Australia's borders from a few thousand people whose only "crime" has been to seek Australia's help and protection. According to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), 2,184 children were held in detention centres between 1 July 1999 and 30 June 2003 for an average of about 1½ years. Some children have been held in detention for up to 5 years before being declared refugees.
More than 92% of these children were found to be genuine refugees deserving of our protection. Why do we punish those who are innocent after they have already suffered so much?
Children in Australia and in Nauru under the "protection" of Australia are being subject to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. They are in such a state that they have been become psychiatrically ill, harmed themselves, thrown themselves against razor wire, stopped eating and tried to commit suicide by swallowing shampoo. There are still over 160 children held in immigration detention today despite the findings of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found after a thorough inquiry that Australia's policy of mandatory detention of asylum seeker children who arrive without a visa is a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Australia has signed and supported. Detention (imprisonment) of children should be a last resort and should be for the shortest possible time. This is clearly not the case with asylum seeker children. They have not been protected. They have not been treated with respect or dignity. They have suffered physical and psychological trauma. They have not received adequate health care or education.
These children are some of the most vulnerable in the world and rather than protecting them as they deserve, we have succeeded in increasing their suffering. The Minister for Immigration acts as the guardian for these children. They have a responsibility equal to a parent to each of these children. Which parent who took this role seriously, could allow the cruel treatment of these children to continue?
These children deserve the famous Australian "fair go" so that they can rebuild their lives in safety and security.
Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/media_pack/index.html to find out more about the HREOC Inquiry into children in immigration detention.
World Refugee Day was 20th June.
Fence-fall
Picture Credit: Chilout
Religion
1. What is the ethical and moral basis for continuing to detain children in prison-like conditions simply for asking for protection? Discuss.
2. What is the Government's justification?
Go to www.minister.immi.gov.au/media_releases/
media04/v04082.htm to view the reasons why the minister thinks that the mandatory detention of children is good policy:
- This sends a message to people with children that they will not get better treatment than those without children. This will discourage people from coming to Australia to ask for protection.
- There are hardly any children left in detention. See www.chilout.org for actual numbers.
- 54 children who have been in detention on Nauru are refugees and after two and a half years in detention are about to be resettled in Australia
- The Labor party also supports this policy
3. Do any of these reasons mean that it is morally correct to allow children to suffer in detention centres? Discuss in small groups and report back to the larger group.
4. One way of determining whether an action is morally right or not is to compare the action with accepted standards like the United Nations Universal declaration of Human Rights or the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/education_resource/
docs/child_friendly_CROC.pdf and read the introduction. Does it say that some children have fewer rights than others? For example, do children asking for protection who arrive by boat deserve fewer rights than those who arrive by plane?
- List the main rights children have. Do children in detention centres have all these rights?
- Scroll down to Article 19. Is being locked in a detention centre for one and a half years without having been convicted of a criminal offence, a removal of this right?
- Scroll down to Article 37. Is this right being protected for children in immigration detention?
- Can the suffering of innocent children ever be justified even if it is only a small number? If it works to deter people smugglers? How much suffering is acceptable?
5. Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/education_resource/
croc.html and complete the suggested activity. This will focus on the difference between a right and a want. This will then be compared to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There are discussion and research tasks suggested.
Go to Step 5 and complete the activity about Zahra who has spent 18 months in immigration detention.
6. Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/education_resource/
bda.html which has a task which focuses directly on the Inquiry.
7. Sometimes we use the Law to guide us in our moral decision-making. It is obviously legal to detain children asylum seekers in Australia . Does this make it morally justified? Are there any examples of legal acts that are immoral?
What does International Law say about the detaining of children? Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/summaryguide/5_law.htm to find out how our obligations to protect the rights of children are being fulfilled. What are the main principles involved in protecting the human rights of asylum children? Does the Australian Government put this into practice in its policy of detaining all asylum seekers, even children?
Scroll to the bottom of the page. What obligation does Australia have under the Refugee Convention? Seeing as over 90% of children in detention centres are found to be refugees deserving protection, is Australia fulfilling its obligations to these children?
8. Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/summaryguide/
6_aus_policy.htm to read what the Inquiry found as to whether Australia 's policy of detaining children protected their human rights. Answer the following questions:
- How is the immigration detention of children a violation of their human rights?
- How many countries have the same policy as Australia ?
- How does "community detention" work? Does this reduce the human rights of children too?
9. Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/summaryguide/
16_findings.htm to look at the key findings and recommendations of the Inquiry. List the major changes to the policy of the detention of children that HREOC recommends.
10. Go to www.hreoc.gov.au/human_rights/
children_detention_report/media_pack/statistics.html and answer the following:
- Compare the number of successful refugee applications between those who arrived with a proper visa and those that did not. Why were those most likely to be genuine refugees end up in detention camps?
- How many of those that came from Afghanistan and Iraq were refugees?
- How long was the longest detention of a child?
- How old were the majority of children in detention?
- Why is the number of children in detention underestimated in this inquiry? Hint: Are all detainees held on the Australian mainland?
11. Consider the lines of our national anthem: For those that have come across the sea we've boundless plains to share… Is this reflected in our policies towards refugees?
English
1. Government ministers have used language in a particular way in order to justify harsh treatment of asylum seekers. Even though immigration detention is not meant to be a punishment, it is difficult to deny the prison-like conditions of immigration detention centres. Prison is used to punish people who have committed serious crimes. So if the government can use persuasive language to convince Australians that asylum seekers are somehow like criminals then we will be more likely to accept their imprisonment. Explain how expressions such as the following have this effect:
- Illegal immigrant
- Queue jumper
- People like these
- People who throw their children overboard
- People who use their children to get their own way
- Not like us
- Illegals
- Unauthorised arrival
- People who come without valid documents
What effect does the banning of the press from detention centres have on how well we know the asylum seekers? Why does the government not want us to hear their stories?
2. Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/info_for_teachers/
face_facts/ref_act2.htm for more ideas on the use of language on this issue.
Social sciences
1. Go to www.humanrights.gov.au/info_for_teachers
/face_facts/ref_rec.htm for teaching ideas on the issue of refugees and asylum seekers. This site covers the difference between refugees and asylum seekers, why people flee their homeland etc.
2. Go to www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/
23/1079939646822.html to find out the size of the refugee program of Australia . How does this compare to the total number of refugees in the world? Go to www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/basics to find out. How many of these people will want to settle in a new country like Australia ?
3. Go to page 2 of www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/
opendoc.pdf?tbl=STATISTICS&id=
4061520e2&page=statistics to see which countries hosted the most number of refugees. Does Australia appear on this list? Why not? How does our intake of some 6000 refugees per year compare with countries like Iran and Pakistan ?
Scroll down to page 16 of this document. How many of the 10.4 million refugees are resettled by the UNHCR? How many of these are resettled in Australia ?
Scroll down to page 17. How is it misleading to say as the Government says that they are the third most generous country in the world in accepting refugees?
4. Go to www.australiaforunhcr.org.au/
schools/teacher.html for Geography teaching materials relating to refugees.
5. Go to news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/
06/photogalleries/refugeeday/ to view photos of refugee children.
6. Go to www.abc.net.au/longjourney/
documentary_broadband.html to view an interactive documentary on the situation facing young asylum seekers and refugees in Australia . This will cover the situation that they fled from, their journey as well as their experiences after arriving in Australia .
7. Go to www.sofweb.vic.edu.au/lem/esl/refweek.htm and school.newsweek.com/extras/wrd.php for more excellent material focusing on the refugee experience. This site also has excellent links to further material and resources.
1. Read and discuss how the mandatory detention of asylum seekers could be deemed to be crimes against humanity according to a leading QC:
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/
07/08/1057430195786.html
2. Go to www.chilout.org to find out what action you can take to have children freed from immigration detention. Chilout has a comprehensive coverage of all the issues to do with children in detention including news releases, events, actions, photos etc.
3. Participate in a world Refugee day event Go to www.worldrefugeeday.org.au to find an event taking place near you or organise one yourself!
4. The Minister for Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs has recently sent out a pack to all schools entitled: Australia says "yes" to refugees. In light of the HREOC report you would be entitled to treat such a document with cynicism. What kind of techniques has the government used to convey their message? Consider the timing of the release of this kit. What do you think the government is hoping to achieve by sending such a kit to schools?