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Submission to the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from
Melbourne City Mission
20 March 2002
Dr Sev Ozdowski
OAM
Human Rights Commissioner
Acting Disability Discrimination Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY 1042 NSW
Dear Dr. Ozdowski,
Re: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention
Melbourne Citymission would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide input into your inquiry into children in immigration detention. It is an issue that goes to the very heart of how we as a nation care for our children. It is particularly pertinent to Melbourne Citymission as we are an organization committed to supporting and advocating on behalf of the marginalised.
While we do not specifically have expertise on how detention will impact on the psychological and social well-being of children or on the most effective model for the provision of education in immigration detention, we do have substantial expertise in providing generalist and specialist services to children and their families. Specifically we work with children and families from many diverse cultural backgrounds including those cultural groups currently being targeted for detention. This expertise means that we are well placed to highlight the elements that need to be provided to all children to ensure their developmental capacities are optimised and psychological and social well-being are developed and sustained. Along with a well-developed understanding of the specific needs of children and families who have experienced the traumas forced migration.
In Melbourne Citymission’s experience, as with all children, those children in immigration detention will require:
- A safe, supportive and relaxed environment where they are free to try new experiences/challenges, which is vital for their emotional development,
- Equipment designed to develop their fine motor and gross motor skills for example puzzles and climbing frames,
- Opportunities to play and interact with their peers in a safe and positive environment in order for their social development to be enhanced,
- Opportunities to play games and use puzzles to expand their cognitive skills
- Access to a wide range of life opportunities such as social activities, shopping, as well as different environments such as a park or the beach as a basis for dramatic play, writing etc. which is central to all facets of development, and
- To have access to physical/sporting activities for their physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
For unaccompanied children who are already vulnerable to abuse and long-term psychological and emotional implications, additional supports will be required in order to redress the trauma that isolation and separation can cause.
Similarly for children with disabilities, they will require all of the above plus access to specialised assessment, equipment and professional support.
Additionally, all of the parents and guardians caring for children in immigration detention will, as with all parents/guardians, require the opportunity to access information on child development and parenting skills.
In sum, for a child’s health and well-being to be optimised they need a safe, healthy, positive, interactive environment. Hence it is important to note that in the broader community if it was evident;
- that a child was not living in a positive (developmentally) environment,
- where they were and/or had experienced trauma and/or
- their specific developmental needs were not being met,
then the community norm would be that the Child Protection system would be activated. It behoves us to ensure that children in immigration detention have access to the same right of protection. Melbourne Citymission therefore strongly opposes any service system that denies children access to basic human developmental rights.
We trust, therefore, that in the process of assessing the current situation faced by children in immigration detention that you utilise ‘normal child development’ factors as a critical part of your criteria.
Yours sincerely,
Anne Turley
Chief Executive Officer
