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Activity 3: Zarah’s situation: A last resort
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Subject: Legal Studies, Civics and Citizenship,
SOSE, History, Geography
Level: Upper secondary
Time needed: One lesson (following others in
series)
Resources: Access to computers for web
research
Convention on the Rights of the Child (Child friendly version) available at http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/plainchild.asp
Summary Guide: A Last Resort available at http://www.humanrights.gov.au/human_rights/children_detention_report/summaryguide/index.html
Aim: To introduce students to the issues that faced children who were kept in Australian Immigration Detention Centres prior to the policy change in 2005.
Note: In June 2005 the Migration Act was amended so that children and their families could only be detained in immigration detention centres ‘as a measure of last resort’. Prior to this, children were automatically detained in detention centres.
Families and children have since been released from immigration detention facilities into community-based detention, which means that they can live in the community and participate in education and community life. For shorter periods of time, children and their families may be placed in residential housing centres or alternative detention arrangements.
For current government policy refer students to http://www.immi.gov.au
1. Read the following case study to students as a listening exercise (or provide them with the text).
Case study
The year is 2002. Zarah is a 12 year old Iraqi girl being held in one of Australia’s immigration detention centres. She fled Iraq with her parents and younger brother because the family had received death threats and were afraid of political persecution. After a long and dangerous journey, the family arrived in Australia hoping to be accepted as refugees and to begin a new life. However, under previous Australian immigration policy, they were placed in an immigration detention centre while their application for refugee status was processed and finalised. Zarah and her family were in detention for almost 18 months.
2. Discussion questions:
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Who had the responsibility to protect Zarah’s rights while she was held in immigration detention?
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What do you think Zarah might list as her top three rights?
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Do you think that she would have been able to enjoy those rights? Why or why not?
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What impact do you think it would have on Zarah if she can’t enjoy those important rights?
3. Have students read through the quotes included in Worksheet 3a. These interviews were part of the Commission’s 2003 National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention.
4. Ask students to examine each quote and identify:
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the right(s) that have been denied to the young person
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the action that should have been taken to ensure that their rights were protected
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the groups that might have been involved in protecting those rights.
A grid is included with Worksheet 3b to assist students to record their answers.
Additional research questions based on the National
Inquiry could include:
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When did Australia change its policy on children in detention?
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What was the reason for changing the policy on Children in detention?
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What happens to children arriving in Australia illegally today?
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What groups were involved in lobbying to protect children’s rights in detention centres?
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How did the Australian Human Rights Commission gather material about children in immigration detention?
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What groups spoke to the Commission about children in immigration detention?
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To what extent was Australia upholding its obligations under the CRC before the change in policy in 2005?
Worksheet 3a
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Evidence from the 2003 National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
Read through the following quotes. These are things that asylum seeker children told the Australian Human Rights Commission about their time in Australian immigration detention centres.
Quote 1
I think that the children should be free and when they are there for one year or two years they are just wasting their time, they could go to school and they could learn something. They could be free. Instead they are like a bird in a cage.
Ten-year-old Afghan girl found to be a refugee, Perth focus group
Quote 2
There are children who have been there for a very long time – two to three years – and they have done things that are very distressing, like they went up the trees and they wanted to throw themselves, trying to commit suicide. There were kids that actually stitched their mouths. Things that are so traumatic that we are now having nightmares on a daily basis.
Former detainee boy, Perth focus group
Quote 3
When we were in the detention centre and someone was sick, headache or sick and they would say, ‘Just drink water.’ ... My sister has a problem with her eyes. She said her eyes were so painful and she went to the doctor who said, ‘You just have to drink water’. Now we come to Sydney and the doctor says she has a problem in her eyes.
Teenage girl, Sydney focus group
Quote 4
In Port Hedland there is a school outside ... I used to stand on a chair and look out at them. I like to see what they looked like in their school uniform. There was an officer ... and she pulled my shoulder down and put me on the ground and said, ‘You are not allowed to look at those people because they are different to you.’ And I was like ‘Why are they different to me? Because they know English and they are Australian, does that make them better?’
Teenage boy, Perth focus group
Quote 5
After one month they brought one woman but you don’t know who she is – we are just UAMs (unaccompanied minors) with her. At this age we need mother and father – we not leave mother and father unless there are big things to make us leave our families.
Unaccompanied child, Woomera, January 2002
Worksheet 3b
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After you
have read the quotes, work in pairs to examine each quote and
identify:
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the right(s) that have been denied to the young person.
-
the action that should have been taken to ensure that their rights were protected.
-
the groups that might have been involved in protecting those rights.
Use the grid below to record your answers.
| |
Right(s) |
Action |
Groups |
|---|---|---|---|
Quote 1 |
|||
Quote 2 |
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Quote 3 |
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Quote 4 |
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Quote 5 |