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Submission to National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
Melbourne Catholic Migrant & Refugee Office
The Melbourne Catholic Migrant & Refugee Office (MCMRO) provides advice and guidance from a Catholic perspective in response to policy and program issues relating to migrants and refugees.
The Director of the Office was also the Episcopal Vicar for Migrants & Refugees and was assisted by 41 chaplains ministering to 21 migrant communities.
There is also an Archdiocesan Commission on Migration consisting of members drawn from various Catholic agencies and migrant communities in the Archdiocese. The Commission oversees the pastoral response of the Church to the needs and aspirations of migrants and refugees; and provides policy and program advice to the Archbishop on these issues.
Because this Office does not provide direct social welfare or counselling services, it is not in a position to provide first-hand evidence of breaches of human rights. However, the Office would like to lend its support to related organisations that have also prepared submissions for this Inquiry.
In particular -
- Australian Catholic Migrant & Refugee Office (ACMRO)
- Australian Catholic Social Justice Council (ACSJC)
- Catholic Commission for Justice, Development & Peace (CCJDP), Melbourne
- Justice for Asylum Seekers (JAS) Alliance and
- National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA).
As Catholics, we are guided by the philosophies of the Bible scriptures -
- not to mistreat foreigners (Exodus 22:21 & Leviticus 19:33)
- to show love and compassion toward others especially those who have less than us (John 3:34-35 & 1 John 3:17) and
- to welcome the stranger into our midst (Matthew 25:31-46).
Human Rights are Refugee Rights
When the Australian government detains all men, women and children, including unaccompanied minors, who arrive by boat seeking our protection, as a nation, we violate their right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution. We deny their right to liberty. We have broken the rule that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention.
When we employ a company like Australasian Correctional Management (ACM), we engage in a punitive system that imposes penalties on refugees on account of their illegal entry or presence.
In the case of children, the Australian government has used mandatory detention as a measure of first resort rather than of last resort.
When this detention is indefinite, children are not being detained for the shortest appropriate period of time. And because this is an "administrative detention", there is no imperative for the government administration to process claims quickly.
When children have been born and spent the first, most formative years of their lives behind barbed wire in desert detention centres, then we have imprisoned the innocent and the deprivation of their liberty is unlawful.
The extrajudicial nature of immigration detention means there is no independent review of decisions. The law has no power to release anyone from immigration detention and it has limited scope for review as it is limited to only points of law rather than the merits of individual cases.
When adult applicants are floundering with a complex immigration application system, that requires intensive preparation by migration agents, the child's fate is precariously bound to the fate of their parents or guardians. We must question how well a child can participate in decisions being made about them.
When the number of unaccompanied minors drops from 53 in November 2001 to just 8 in May 2002, we should be overjoyed that the Minister for Immigration, Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs has shown his discretion and released these vulnerable youth. However, the reality is that they have been detained so long they are no longer classified as "unaccompanied minors".
When the guardian of these unaccompanied minors is also their gaoler then there must be a conflict of interest and the guideline "in the best interests of the child" must be seriously compromised. It is doubtful whether a Court of Law would normally award guardianship to a person who intended to keep the child in a restricted area with limited access to food, health care and education while having no intention of developing an on-going relationship with that child.
When children's artwork depicts ACM staff in riot gear wielding batons or using water cannons, detainees beaten and bleeding on the ground and high fences topped with razor wire, then we have failed to protect the most vulnerable from further atrocities.
When the word 'feerdom' appears in one of these pictures, it could be passed off as a spelling error and should have read 'freedom'. It could also be a name describing Australia, not as a sovereign state or kingdom but as a country where its political power was based on fear and the only misspelling was it should have been 'feardom'.
By confining men, women and children, from different countries, with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, in inhospitable environments, such as the Australian desert, we have denied them the freedom to choose their residence. We have also seriously compromised their right to security of the person.
To the parents, we have not given them a family environment or an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding to bring their children up in. And, in some cases, the Australian government has kept fathers separated from their families or held them as ransom in the case of the Home Detention scheme at Woomera.
By their very nature, Australia's Immigration Detention Centres are fertile environments for the growth of hopelessness and dysfunctional responses to situations outside the detainees' own control. No wonder there is a high incidence of self-mutilation, hunger strikes and attempted suicides. Detainees, including children and unaccompanied minors, can only protest with the only resource they have some control over - their own bodies. And no wonder detainees attempt escape. However, if their detention, in the first place, is unlawful then their attempts to escape should not be illegal.
It is well known that indefinite, non-reviewable, mandatory detention contributes to the ill physical and mental health of detainees by imposing unnecessary stress and anxiety on the individual, impairing their ability to function as rational human beings, let alone good parents or role models for their children.
With higher incidences of self-harm and suicide attempts in detained populations as compared to the wider community, we must question the adequacy of living standards in detention. Australia has a high standard of living so giving the minimum requirements in the areas of nutrition, health care, education and recreation is not adequate.
The psychological cost to these people goes well beyond their time in detention and, in the case of children, must greatly affect their self-perception and their development throughout adolescence and into adulthood.
Where education is seen as a key to a better life, Australia denies detained children the right to education beyond 12 years of age and severely limits access to a full education below this age. Again, Australian parents have fairly high expectations for the healthy growth and development of their children to reach their full potential. There should be no less an expectation for the children of refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia. And, in the cases where children have experienced torture and/or trauma, these children need even greater assistance to counter these experiences.
Refugees and displaced persons, including their children, have been recognised as the most vulnerable people in our world. If the treatment of the most vulnerable is a measure of a civilised society, then Australia falls well below the mark. What is needed is a real commitment to restoring "cultural normalcy" for refugee children and their families, as soon as possible, to ensure the least disruption to their development; and by seeing their children flourish, we will give hope to their parents.
In an address to the International Catholic Migration Commission (November 2001). Pope John Paul II invites us to see Christ in every brother and sister in need, to proclaim and defend the dignity of every migrant, every displaced person and every refugee; and to give assistance not as alms from the goodness of our heart, but as an act of justice due to them.
Yours sincerely
Brenda Hubber
Executive Secretary
Last Updated 9 January 2003.
