Last Updated 18 July 2004.
This statement was provided by Mr Anthony Hamilton-Smith, Ex-DIMIA Manager from Woomera to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration DetentionSubmission No. 282
This is an edited submission
STATUTORY DECLARATION
I, Anthony Hamilton-Smith of [address removed], South Australia, public servant do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:
1. I make this statement for the purposes of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention.
2. I have asked for my evidence to the Inquiry to be confidential. [Permission later granted for the statement to be made public].
3. I have worked for what is now the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) since 1985 in a variety of portfolios.
4. I was the Business Manager at the Woomera Immigration, Reception and Processing Centre (WIRPC) from May 2000 to the end of May 2001. I was the senior DIMIA official at the WIRPC.
5. Prior to my position at Woomera I was an Assistant Director in the Adelaide office.
6. As Manager at the WIRPC I was responsible for the management of DIMIA's business there, this encompassed a range of functions including:
- Monitoring and assisting with DIMIA's processing of Temporary Protection Visa (TPV) applications;
- Monitoring the contract performance of the operators of the WIRPC, Australasian Correctional Management (ACM); and
- Monitoring the wellbeing of all residents of the WIRPC.
7. I am presently on recreation leave and still employed by DIMIA. I have been on leave since finishing my position at the WIRPC. Conditions at the WIRPC were very stressful for staff and it was not uncommon for me to work for 24 hours without a break. I have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of the environment at the WIRPC under which staff worked. This is a condition from which I have never suffered before.
Conditions at the WIRPC
8. In my view, despite the efforts made by staff on the ground in Woomera, the detention environment at the WIRPC is damaging for people who are detained for long periods. It is the longer term corrosive impact of detention on detainees and particularly children that I am especially concerned about. The main causes of this are:
- Uncertainty. Little information was provided for people about the process and time taken in processing visa applications. Their IAAAS solicitors are only intermittently on site and often did not provide answers to their clients. They often referred them back to the DIMIA Manager. "Screened out" residents were merely told that the process was continuing. I tried to provide information and assistance but could only do so to a limited extent.
- Delays. When I arrived at the WIRPC in May 2000 none of the residents there had had a decision made in relation to their visa applications. Some had been there since November 1999, others since January 2000.
- Harsh physical environment and a lack of sensory stimulation (colours, smells, textures) such as plants, grass, play equipment, colour, smell that eg. flowers would provide.
- Powerlessness and institutionalisation. By way of example, families could not prepare their own meals. This was something that was very corrosive and further engendered a sense of powerlessness, which was undermining of families and parenting.
- Interplay between internal psychological state resulting from trauma experienced by some people in their home country, and the harsh external environment of the WIRPC.
9. I recall one particular family which, when they arrived appeared to be a strong cohesive family unit. The children were always clean and well-presented and I observed the strong bonds within the family unit. After about 10 months the mother, who was a medical specialist, approached me and asked me to take the children to get them out of detention. She had become unable to care for her children and wanted to give them to me to get them out of detention.
10. There was interplay, in my view, between the imperative of having people processed promptly and released and sending a deterrent message to other potential asylum seekers. I believe that the imperative of deterrence at times came to the fore. Ultimately it impacted upon the conditions and nature of detention and made them less humane and safe than they would otherwise have seen. From having visited a variety of prisons through my work, I am of the view that the facilities were far superior to those provided at the WIRPC.
11. Staffing levels were generally inadequate, although the level of nursing staff was generally adequate, however some exhibited racist attitudes. The numbers of staff in teaching and psychological positions were inadequate. I was aware that there was concern about this by local ACM staff, but the matter was controlled from Sydney ..
12. Some staff, having often come from a prison background, did approach detainees in a way that I thought lacked sensitivity and understanding. ACM management locally did deal with this issue by removing some staff and introducing training programs....
13. There was no policy of calling detainees by numbers. At first when there were large numbers of detainees it was more convenient to use numbers because there might have been many people with a common first name (such as Mohammed) and there were difficulties for staff with pronunciation. There were also people in the camp who were using aliases and did not respond when their name was called. However this did not continue for long and a system was implemented whereby a first name followed by a person's number was used. I did not think, however, that numbers were used to harass or demean people.
14. I was aware of DIMIA's Immigration Detention Standards and tried to use these as a tool to require ACM to improve standards where I though they were lacking. However, they were not very useful in practice because they were essentially "motherhood" statements.
Accommodation
15. When I arrived the WIRPC comprised 3 main compounds - Sierra, India and the Main Compound. There was no area designated for children. The approach to the detention centre generally was "one size fits all". Single men from a variety of backgrounds, families, children (in families and unaccompanied), women (including pregnant women) were all in the same compound.
16. The accommodation including the new compounds was designed with single men in mind. The composition of the camp increasingly included women and children because of the conditions of the TPV which prevented family reunion.
17. While families and children could have separate rooms, it was not initially physically possible to have children and families in a separate compound from the single men. I raised this problem with the DIMIA head office but nothing was done until 2001 when fences were put in to divide the main compound into 3 areas, with one for families.
Safety and Exposure to Violence
18. It was very difficult and not generally possible to separate children from the main population during rioting. I recall, in particular, the riots in August 2000 which were particularly violent. People were throwing rocks and using metal bars to damage property and attack staff. Children were caught up in the riots and I regarded lives as being at risk from fire and from some of the rioters. This impacted on the children and left them terrified.
19. ..
20. Children also witnessed numerous acts of self-harm and threatened self-harm by adult detainees. Some of the children seemed to have an almost morbid fascination with these incidents. I was aware that this caused the children nightmares, but some already had experienced from witnessing the beating of close family members y police and others in their home countries.
21. When I started at the WIRPC, there was no policy in place for dealing with child abuse, nor were there case management guidelines for such cases. I regarded this as inappropriate and inadequate. A child abuse policy was in place by about November 2000, which was developed locally by DIMIA and ACM staff. Case management guidelines were not fully developed prior to my departure from ACM, but a good draft plan had been developed by [an ACM staff member]. As the WIRPC was the last centre to have been commissioned, I would have expected policies and procedures to be in place at other centres or nationally.
22. I regarded the responses to any allegations of child abuse as appropriate. There was not, to my knowledge, a particular problem of child abuse in the WIRPC while I was employed there, and any matters that arose were dealt with by way of reporting to Family and Youth Services (FAYS) and South Australian Police (SAPOL) as required by law.
Play and Activities
23. There were simply not adequate play areas and stimulation for children.
24. General levels of play and activities for children varied because at times when there was a mood of depression in the centre, children may not have wanted to attend, or their parents would not allow them to attend.
25. ACM staff and other detainees did make efforts to provide activities for children but the kids should have been able to use a grassed area as they desired. Locally, we put down artificial grass to give children a better area to play. However, this should have been done earlier as a priority part of the construction, and grass should have been planted.
26. When I arrived at the WIRPC there was no play equipment erected for children to play on. There was some modern play equipment that had been donated by Defence to the WIRPC and was ready to be installed. There were apparently concerns by ACM about legal liability, but it was equipment that had been used until recently in the Woomera township. None of the equipment had been installed by the end of the year and the equipment was only partly installed by the time I finished employment at the WIRPC.
27. Pony rides had also been organised for kids while I was working at the WIRPC. Children were led on ponies, and wore helmets. However, ACM head office stopped this again with concerns about legal liability.
28. Locally, ACM and DIMIA initiated excursions to Breen Park, the local pool and picture theatre. There were also significant logistical difficulties in arranging excursions which were not frequent enough to provide stimulation for children. This was partly because of the limited staff available and because resources (such as transport) were either not available or not made available.
Health
29. I was aware that there were problems in providing appropriate counselling and psychological services to detainees, including children, while in detention. During much of my time at the WIRPC there were shortages of experienced child psychologists. It was not possible to provide Torture and Trauma counselling for people in detention. Note particularly that this was largely because the harshness of the environment simply made it impossible to properly counsel people - the environmental causes of their psychological problems could not be changed. More significantly such counselling cannot be undertaken until individuals are ready and in an appropriate environment.
30. When I arrived, there were also inadequate numbers of staff available for proper counselling. The levels of staff improved at times, but as people were on short-term contracts, although this later changed and there were obvious problems with providing continuity of care.
31. I observed that the welfare of children was significantly impacted upon by the welfare of the parents. When parents could not cope, the children suffered.
32. There were some incidents of children participating in hunger and fluid strikes. This was advised to FAYS and in general counselled parents who were supportive of getting children off the strikes. We were able to get the children eating and drinking again. On one occasion an 11 year-old boy who was in the care of an aunt and uncle was on a hunger strike and becoming increasingly weak. I was asked to intervene by detainees and the doctor and did so. I was able to get him to eat and drink again.
33. I did not regard there as being a problem with the general level of medical services available. However, the medical building itself was clearly inadequate. I understand that has now been replaced with a new facility. I did not observe any medical care being denied because of a lack of resources.
Education
34. When I arrived there was one Australian teacher, a detainee acting as principal and some detainees who had been teachers in their home country running classes. There was a lot of involvement of detainees in providing education, which had significant advantages in terms of using the skills of the detainee population and maintaining culture.
35. I regarded a good job was done by detainees and the employed teacher involved in providing education with the resources available, but there was not adequate facilities for schooling such as quiet classrooms, appropriate play areas and a library with books in a variety of languages, and/or sufficient teaching staff familiar with the Australian curricula.
36. Education beyond the centre was explored in a tentative way whilst I was there, but I understand that there were concerns in local community about this which were a barrier.
Unaccompanied Minors
37. I regarded there as being an appropriate level of care provided to unaccompanied minors, given the environment and resources at the WIRPC. I considered myself to have responsibility for the care of unaccompanied minors by virtue of the Minister's position as their guardian, and took this responsibility seriously. However, the fundamental question remains: "Are we as Australians providing the most humane level of care?"
Responses to Problems
38. I raised my concerns about standards and conditions (such as the inadequate numbers of staff and lack of appropriate play facilities) with ACM staff in Woomera and they, in turn, raised them with their head office..
39. When I raised these problems with my head office, I was told that these were resourcing issues and these were not a matter for DIMIA. I was told that we were to judge on outcomes and raise such matters in the quarterly reports. While I did so, this approach was, in my opinion, flawed. Most obviously it resulted in problems only being addressed after the event and causes often not addressed.
40. Furthermore, some things, such as the long term effects of an environment devoid of stimulation cannot be measured in terms of short-term outcomes. Things such as self-harm and increased disturbances only materialise over time as people become more desperate. But it was clear that such outcomes were, in the long term, inevitable because of the failure to address short term concerns.
41. I am of the opinion that blame cannot be laid at the feet of the staff on the ground working at the WIRPC, or the detainees. Rather, it is a flawed model that causes unavoidable problems. Specifically, many traumatized individuals, lumped together at times with those who were gaolers in their home countries, others threatening individuals, inadequate information, a sense of powerlessness, minute control over simple daily activities, for example food, medication, and a lack of sensory stimulation all contribute to a corrosive breakdown of a person's psyche. This is overlaid with a government obsessed with control, border security and legal liability. Daily operations are conducted by a contracted company.
42. Not all experiences at the WIRPC from the resident's viewpoint were negative. I have been told by some Afghanis that the food was the best they have ever eaten. Others joyful at winning an event in a sports carnival, happiness when ACM staff hosted a Samoan evening for long term residents. It was a place in which intense highs and lows occurred for many residents. It seemed that the flying in of teams of lawyers, DIMIA staff and release dates had a significant effect on the overall mood of the WIRPC.
I make this solemn declaration by virtue of the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 as amended and subject to the penalties provided by that Act for the making of false statements in statutory declarations, conscientiously believing the statements contained in this declaration to be true in every particular.
Signed on 24 October 2002
Site navigation
Change font size: 
