28 November 2000
Time to Examine Alternatives to Detention
The President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Professor Alice Tay, today welcomed the willingness of the Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock, to consider alternatives to detention for the children of asylum seekers and other immigration detainees.
In recent comments to a public meeting in Melbourne and on ABC Radio, Mr Ruddock agreed to investigate the workability of releasing children and their mothers to group homes outside detention centres on the lines of a model reportedly operating in Sweden.
"The Commission has a long-standing concern for children in immigration detention centres," Professor Tay said. "The vulnerability of children and their need for special protection during their developmental years, has led almost every country in the world to agree that children should only be detained as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. We have repeatedly expressed concerns about the quality of education, recreational facilities and health care provided to children in immigration detention centres."
Professor Tay acknowledged the difficulty of releasing children whose parents cannot be released under Australian law as currently formulated.
"Normally, children's best interests are served by remaining in the care of their parents. The Swedish model whereby children are released with their mothers while their fathers remain in detention nearby, may offer a useful compromise solution in the best interests of the children and is worthy of consideration by Government", Professor Tay said.
"The ideal solution is for claims to be processed rapidly and detainees released while their protection visa applications are finalised. The Commission recommended to the Federal Government in 1998 that immigration detention should only be allowed during the period necessary to verify an applicant's identity. In its 1998 report, Those who've come across the seas: detention of unauthorised arrivals, the Commission found that Australia's policy of detaining all but a tiny minority of unauthorised arrivals violates Australia's international obligations under the Refugee Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Media contact: Janine MacDonald (02) 9284 9880 or 0412 783 631
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