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Submission to the National

Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention from

the Muslim Women's National

Network of Australia


1.

The provisions made by Australia to implement its international human

rights obligations regarding child asylum seekers, including unaccompanied

minors.

2.

The mandatory detention of child asylum seekers and other children arriving

in Australia without visas, and alternatives to their detention.

3.

The adequacy and effectiveness of the policies, agreements, laws, rules

and practices governing children in immigration detention or child asylum

seekers and refugees residing in the community after a period of detention

4.

The impact of detention on the well-being and healthy development of children,

including their long term development

5.

The additional measures and safeguards which may be required in detention

facilities to protect the human rights and best interests of all detained

children

6.

The additional measures and safeguards which may be required to protect

the human rights and best interests of child asylum seekers and refugees

residing in the community

Summary

of MWNNA submissions


The Muslim Women's

National Network of Australia (MWNNA) is a multicultural group of Muslim

women who work for the empowerment of Muslim women in Australia and for

the bringing about of understanding and mutual respect between Muslim

communities and mainstream Australians.

Since December 2001

a number of MWNNA members have been visiting detainees at Villawood Immigration

Detention Centre (VIDC) on a regular basis. The majority of our observations

below are drawn from our members' experiences at VIDC, but we have also

corresponded with and have received information from interested people

working with asylum seekers and refugees in Queensland and Victoria.

Addressing the

terms of reference:

1.

The provisions made by Australia to implement its international human

rights obligations regarding child asylum seekers, including unaccompanied

minors.

In December 1990

Australia agreed to be bound by the UN Convention on the Rights of

the Child. [1] Under the terms of the Convention,

children are entitled to:

  • Family life with

    their parents unless separation is in their best interests

  • The highest attainable

    standard of health

  • Protection from

    all forms of mental and physical violence, sexual abuse and exploitation,

    and the right to recover and be rehabilitated from neglect, exploitation,

    abuse torture, ill treatment and armed conflict.

  • To practise their

    culture, language and religion

  • To rest and play
  • To primary education

    and different forms of secondary education which should be available

    and accessible to every child

  • Appropriate protection

    and humanitarian assistance as an asylum seeker or refugee

  • Not to be deprived

    of their liberty arbitrarily or unlawfully, and if in detention only

    in conformity with the law, as a measure of last resort and for the

    shortest appropriate period of time.

Life with their

parents unless separation is in their best interests

In the opinion of

the Muslim Women's National Network of Australia (MWNNA) this provision

of the convention has been breached with respect to large numbers of child

detainees.

A normal family

life is impossible within a detention centre

MWNNA has considerable

doubts concerning whether 'family life' as it is normally understood in

Australia can be meaningfully lived within the confines of a detention

centre at all, since all the members of the family are subjected to the

conditions of imprisonment. This makes it impossible for parents to perform

normal family roles, such as taking up employment and making provision

for the family, choice of dwelling, choice of foods, recreation and educational

facilities.

Parents' normal relationship

with their children is disrupted by detention. The detention authority

(ACM) administering government policy makes decisions concerning children

which in a normal family situation would be made by their parents. Parental

authority is superseded by the authority of guards to direct children

where to go, what to do and how to behave. Some decisions of the guards

may be contrary to the views of parents as to what is in the interests

of their children, but parents are powerless to counteract such decisions.

Mothers in detention

are unable to decide sleeping arrangements for children, timing and content

of meals and other everyday aspects of family living. They cannot guarantee

security for their children or prevent them witnessing traumatic events

involving other detainees. [2] Under such circumstances,

normal family life is impossible.

Furthermore parents

who are themselves anxious and depressed due to conditions of detention

and the uncertainty of life in detention may be impaired in their ability

to carry out parenting functions properly. Some parents in this situation

may fail to meet the needs of their children.

Separation

of children from one or both parents in detention

Some child detainees

have been separated from one or both parents during the period of detention.

In one case known to MWNNA the father of the family has been held in Port

Headland while the mother and four children, including two teenage boys,

have been moved to VIDC. Contact with the father is only by telephone

and infrequent. The father is not able to play a very necessary role in

the lives of the teenage boys. These boys in addition to experiencing

the normal turmoil of adolescence have been exhibiting signs of depression

and suicidal thoughts and clearly are in need of their father's guidance.

In another case reported

in the media, [3] a father had been released from detention

on a Temporary Protection visa, but his wife and five children, who arrived

at a later date, had been detained in Woomera for 13 months. According

to the media report, the husband had been able to speak to his family

in brief telephone conversations only 8 times in 8 months. This family

has no 'family life' to speak of and it appears that there are other families

separated in the same way. [4]

There have been instances

where children have been separated from their parents for mental health

reasons. A [child ] was several times hospitalised for symptoms

of post-traumatic stress which his parents blamed on his experiences in

detention. He was placed in foster care but later [some of his family]

were released from detention and he is now able to live with them, although

his father remains in detention. In this case there is provision for the

father to visit as it is not possible to take the child to the detention

centre to visit his father as he becomes extremely upset at the sight

of the detention centre. [5] Although the condition of

this family has improved, they are still separated and their family life

is far from normal.

In other cases, Immigration

officials have intimated a willingness to allow teenage children to be

released to foster-carers, thus separating them from both their mother

and their father who remain in detention. Teenage children in detention

pose particular problems (see below) and it is not always possible to

find appropriate foster carers for them. In any event their parents know

them best and it is MWNNA's opinion that the interests of such children

are best served by releasing their parents (or at least the mother) to

supervise their daily care. Foster parents may not have the same religious

or cultural background or necessarily any experience in dealing with children

of that age or with children who have experienced trauma, and have been

in detention for long periods of time. [6] MWNNA submits

that in cases of this nature, foster care is unnecessary since the interests

of the children would be best served by being in their mother's care outside

the detention centre so that they may attend school and have some semblance

of a normal life.

Unaccompanied

minors

Numbers of unaccompanied

children, mostly teenage boys, have been released from detention centres.

These children have no possibility of family life since their parents

are not in Australia, and they must rely on a small amount of government

funding, community assistance and their own resources to live. MWNNA submits

that much more in the way of ancillary services should be provided to

allow these children to manage life in Australia successfully.

The highest

attainable standard of health

There have been several

published studies of detainees' health.[7] Physical health

care is the responsibility of Australasian Correctional Management the

private contractor employed by the Australian government to manage the

centres. This company, in turn, employs nurses and other health personnel

as necessary. Detainees are assessed for health problems when first placed

in detention and physical health problems are identified and treated (King

& Vodicka).

At later stages of

detention, detainees have complained that aspirin is handed out by ACM

staff as a cure-all for every complaint, and that some detainee's medical

needs have not been seen to promptly or at all. [8]

Smith [9]

states that detention centres are a difficult environment for medical

practitioners to work in and that they may not have training and experience

in working with the survivors of trauma and torture. Additionally no procedures

are in place for identifying people who may need specialist care and such

people are not offered any special consideration with regard to early

release. [10] The children of such people and children

who come into contact with such people must be adversely affected.

MWNNA's major concerns

lie in the field of the mental health of detained children. We have referred

above to the detrimental effects of disruption of normal family life and

separation from one or both parents in detention. Dr Aamer Sultan a medical

doctor from Iraq who has himself been in detention since May 1999, has

co-authored a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia concerning

the detrimental effects of prolonged detention of the mental health of

detainees. [11] In his report Dr Sultan listed separation

anxiety, disruptive conduct, sleep disturbances, nightmares among the

psychological effects of children in detention. He also mentioned that

some children experience very serious psychological disturbances including

mutism, stereotypic behaviours and refusal to eat or drink. Dr Sultan

has provided a further updated report on the mental health of children

in VIDC, a copy of which is annexed and marked 'A'.

MWNNA unreservedly

accepts Dr Sultan's findings as set out in his above reports. MWNNA is

most concerned that the mental health of detained children is suffering

from the deleterious effects of :indefinite imprisonment, namely.

  • Institutionalisation,

    especially in regard to the fact that some children have been kept continuously

    in detention for up to two years

  • Breakdown of

    normal family roles and interactions as referred to above

  • Mentally damaging

    environment of witnessing riots, self-harm including suicide attempts

    by other inmates and drastic measures adopted by management to control

    same, such as use of water cannon.

  • Lack of education,

    recreation and meaningful activities in detention centres

  • Lack of appropriate

    peer group support, for example a 12 year old boy in VIDC has no other

    child in his age group to play with and plays only with a 6 year old.

    Effective socialization requires that children be able to meet and play

    with other children of a similar age to their own.

  • Anxiety and uncertainty

    as to future and success/failure of visa applications

  • Physical and

    emotional conflict with guards

  • Lack of appropriate

    trained counsellors - no paediatric psychologist available

There is the additional

serious problem of asylum seekers who have arrived in Australia on a visa

and have failed to apply for asylum under the '45 day rule' They are denied

access to medical services also with potentially serious consequences

for themselves and their children. MWNNA submits that all asylum seekers

and refugees should have access to adequate medical services.

MWNNA submits that

there can be no justification for the damaging of children's mental health

in the above manner by prolonged periods of detention and that such detention

breaches Australia's human rights obligations and the Convention on the

Rights of the Child.

2.

The mandatory detention of child asylum seekers and other children arriving

in Australia without visas, and alternatives to their detention.

MWNNA accepts that

a short period of detention may be necessary to enable health and security

checks to be carried out, but submits that current periods of detention

are excessive and far beyond what is reasonable or necessary in the circumstances.

Children's lives are being put 'on-hold' indefinitely and in they are

being subjected to deprivation and abuse in detention.

MWNNA submits that

no child should be held in detention for a period of longer than one or

two weeks and should then be released to live in the community in the

company of at least one parent. Such schemes are in place overseas, notably

in New Zealand where all except one of the refugee families taken from

the Tampa have been processed and released into the community. MWNNA understands

that under Swedish law, no person under 18 may be held in detention for

more than three days, or in extreme circumstances, six days.

3.

The adequacy and effectiveness of the policies, agreements, laws, rules

and practices governing children in immigration detention or child asylum

seekers and refugees residing in the community after a period of detention,

with particular reference to:

  • The conditions

    under which children are detained

As referred to

elsewhere in this submission, MWNNA believes that the conditions under

which children are held in detention in Australia are totally unsatisfactory

and totally unjustifiable. This applies equally to detention in the

'better' detention centres such as VIDC and to detention in remote desert

areas such as Woomera, the conditions at which have been condemned by

Human rights commissioners who have been able to inspect that centre.

[12]

  • Health, including

    mental health, development and disability

MWNNA submits that

current policies, laws rules and practices governing children in detention

are unsatisfactory with regard to the health, especially mental health

of such children, as outlined above.

  • Education

Children

in detention

Education of children

is clearly not up to the standard of education offered to children in

the wider community, or even of children in criminal correctional facilities.

Evidence is that the amount and quality of education varies between

the various detention centres and from time to time at the same centre.

[13] Provision of education is within the responsibilities

of ACM and is not subject to supervision or quality control by the relevant

state education departments. We note that ACM is a commercial enterprise

which makes a profit out of its detention management activities and

thus has an interest in providing services at minimum cost to itself.

At Villawood IDC,

the situation seems to be that children under the age of 12 are given

some education of up to, but not always as much as, 4 or 5 hours per

day. We have been informed that a trained teacher is employed to provide

this education during normal school terms. No provision is made in the

holidays when children are left to occupy themselves as much as is possible

within the confines of the detention centre. In accordance with departmental

guidelines, this education emphasises English language skills. All primary

aged children are taught in a composite class usually in a room dedicated

for the purpose. Children of this age are given one excursion outside

the centre each month.

No education or

training is provided for children over 12, except that, according to

some observers, [14] junior secondary aged children

(approximately 12-14) may be allowed by the teacher to sit in on the

primary classes and do whatever work can be found for them when the

teacher is not otherwise busy with the younger children.

According to Dr

Aamer Sultan [15] textbooks are very old, second hand

and not necessarily appropriate. There are 3 computers which are also

used by adults but no access to the Internet.

Any parent can

testify to the problems which arise from leaving adolescent children,

especially boys, unoccupied. In the normal world, adolescents are occupied

with schoolwork and burn off their excess energy with competitive sport,

part time jobs and household chores such as mowing the lawn or helping

Mum and Dad. Adolescents in detention have none of these openings. Every

day for them must be totally boring, unproductive and depressing. They

have nothing to look forward to except a vague and very uncertain hope

of release in the future.

Some attempts have

been made by volunteers to teach children in detention. Dr Aamer Sultan

notes that of a reported 30 groups who applied provide voluntary educational

help and entertainment for the children, only one was approved by management

after 10 months of processing. [16] Some volunteers

persist by offering tuition at normal visiting times but this must be

given in the open visitors' area with no special facilities. In general

from the observations of MWNNA members, ACM's policies seem to be aimed

at deterring visitors by subjecting them to long waits (up to 2 1/2

hours) excessive and inconsistent bureaucracy and security checks.

MWNNA submits that

it is counterproductive in the extreme to keep adolescents in detention

for long periods of time. It is a violation of the human rights of these

children to deprive them of education and it means that if they are

eventually released to live in Australian society, they will be very

much disadvantaged in comparison with their peers who have had normal

schooling and social interaction.

Children

released from detention in the wider community

The majority of

children released from detention will be released on Temporary Protection

Visas. Under current government policies, these visas preclude the holders

from accessing free English language lessons or from attending TAFE

or university without payment of fees at the overseas student rate.

There are very few, if any TPV holders who would have the financial

means to pay these fees, so in practice, they are precluded from attending

TAFE vocational training courses or other tertiary education.

The majority of

children released from detention are found places in state or private

schools whose parent bodies absorb the cost as a charity. Our information

is that state governments would be entitled to charge up to $8000 per

year in overseas student fees, but state governments and understanding

school principals normally absorb the costs. [17]

Contrary to an

opinion expressed by the Minister, Mr Ruddock, in response to a question

from one of our members at a 'Community Consultation' in Sydney in February

2002 to the effect: "They don't get educated in their own countries

so why should we pay for their education?" the reality appears

to be that child asylum seekers have received a varying amount of education

before arriving in Australia, are eager to learn, and many do learn

at very quickly when given the opportunity. In relation to the boys

in her 'Tiger 11 Refugee Soccer Club' in Queensland, Camilla Cowley

reports: "Many boys have done amazingly well and some are in Year

12 this year. They want so much to go on to university…" [18]

MWNNA submits that

there is a real risk of the creation of a sub-class within Australian

society of TPV holders who are deprived of the educational facilities

available to the rest of the community. This is unfair, discriminatory

and will create further divisions in the community.

  • Culture

MWNNA's comments

under this heading are limited to religion as an aspect of culture.

As a Muslim women's group this is a matter of concern to us, especially

as the majority of current asylum seekers and refugees are Muslims from

Iraq and Afghanistan, most of whom follow the Shia school of Islam.

In the past at

VIDC, Muslim detainees were allowed the use of a building as a mosque.

This permission was withdrawn when a number of detainees escaped by

tunnelling under the floor of the building. Since then there have been

no organised religious arrangements for Muslim inmates. Only the Catholics

have been given permission to conduct religious services there. Muslim

children are therefore receiving no religious instruction or education

except what their parents might be able to manage.

MWNNA members met

with members of the Immigration Detention Advisory Group on 4 March

to request that a Shia Imam be permitted to visit VIDC regularly and

conduct Friday congregational prayers.

MWNNA submits that

detainees should be given access to appropriate religious advisers and

facilities should be made available for children to receive appropriate

religious education if their parents consent.

  • Guardianship

    issues

Children

in detention with parent(s)

Parents are the

natural guardians of their children, but as mentioned above, in detention

conditions, parents' functions are largely abrogated, and decisions

made in respect of children by detention centre management and the Department

of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Such decisions are not always

in the best interests of the children concerned.

Unaccompanied

children

MWNNA understands

that the Minister for Immigration is the legal guardian of unaccompanied

child asylum seekers and refugees. MWNNA submits that the Minister is

an inappropriate guardian for these children since his function as Immigration

Minister creates a conflict of interest with the duties of a guardian

to look after the well being of wards in his care. The present Minister

has made public statements denigrating asylum seekers as 'queue jumpers'

and 'illegals' and has put in place practices, namely mandatory detention

in prison conditions, which are detrimental to the interests of children

in his care.

The Minister is

in charge of a publicly announced government policy of deterring future

asylum seekers by harsh treatment of those who have managed to reach

Australia. He is therefore not an appropriate person to be the guardian

of children in this situation.

MWNNA submits that

the guardianship of the Minister should be replaced by guardianship

by a person independent of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural

Affairs, for example the Head of the relevant Child Protection agency

in each state. Alternatively the Canadian practice of appointing a designated

representative for each child refugee claimant should be adopted. This

should apply whether the children are still in detention or have been

released into the community.

  • Security practices

    in detention

MWNNA submits that

the physical appearance and management of detention centres is more

appropriate to the imprisonment of high security prisoners rather than

asylum seekers who have arrived without the appropriate documentation.

VIDC for example

is situated in an unattractive industrial area. It is surrounded by

high double chainwire fences, the internal fence topped by rolls of

razor wire. Rolls of razor wire are also placed on the ground adjacent

to the inside of the external fence. There are approximately 5 locked

gates and doors to be negotiated before reaching the area where detainees

are kept. Little attention has apparently been given to the grounds

which are unkempt, bare and depressing. The overall appearance is depressing

to well adjusted visitors who have not experienced any of the trauma

experienced by many detainees, and must be much more depressing to detainees.

The centre is administered

by ACM staff, who, we are informed, may be alternated between working

in detention centres and in ordinary prisons. From our observations

as visitors, some of these staff appear to be decent people just doing

a job, others seem to regard it as their personal duty to discourage

visitors, by subjecting them to unnecessarily long periods of queueing

outside the fence, arbitrarily changing regulation as to what can or

cannot be brought in, and arbitrary and unnecessary questioning. For

example, spellings of detainees' names must be exactly as they appear

on ACM's records (names transliterated from Arabic or Farsi may legitimately

have a number of different spellings) It has been denied that certain

detainees are in the centre and later discovered that they are there.

Detainees report

that a few ACM staff go out of their way to make life as unpleasant

as possible for detainees, by humiliating them, denying reasonable requests

and even by physical abuse. One of our visitors personally witnessed

a staff member pushing one of the teenage detainees. According to Dr

Aamer Sultan many ACM staff treat teenage detainees as juvenile delinquents.

[19]

According to detainees,

incidents involving physical harm are hushed up or attributed to 'accidents.'

MWNNA submits that

a company which is principally involved in the management of adult prisons

should not be employed to manage detention centres because of the carry

over of the prison management culture to the centres. Care should be

taken not to employ individual staff members who have inappropriate

attitudes towards detainees.

4.

The impact of detention on the well-being and healthy development of children,

including their long term development

MWNNA believes that

prolonged detention has serious detrimental effects on the development

of children. These detrimental effects range from deprivation of the normal

sensory experiences important to early childhood to deprivation of education,

recreation and normal social interaction experiences in older children.

Although child asylum

seekers in detention have their basic needs for shelter, food and clothing

met, MWNNA believes that these could be provided for much more satisfactorily

(and at lesser cost) in the community where children could experience

normal schooling, recreational activities and social interaction with

an appropriate peer group from among mainstream children.

It is also necessary

to consider the effects of the stigmatisation of asylum seekers and refugees

as a class which has occurred because of the policies of the present government.

Ministers have publicly designated these people as 'queue jumpers', 'illegals',

'potential terrorists' and people of a kind who are not wanted in Australia.

MWNNA submits that this kind of labelling is extremely irresponsible,

and is patently untrue. Unfortunately it has been accepted by a large

section of the Australian population as has been taken by them as permission

to express racist attitudes against not only asylum seekers and refugees

but the whole Muslim population of Australia. This may have long term

detrimental effects not only on children who are or have been in immigration

detention but on the children of the Muslim population generally. A former

adviser to the Minister, Mr Neville Roach has written that: "the

asylum seeker controversy has unquestionably done serious damage to Australia's

multicultural fabric." [20]

5.

The additional measures and safeguards which may be required in detention

facilities to protect the human rights and best interests of all detained

children

Detainees have stressed

that measures currently in place to provide independent review of detention

conditions and practices are inadequate. They have stated that a pre-arranged

'walk-through' by a member of a committee appointed by the Minister in

the company of the Centre Manager does not safeguard detainees' rights.

Detainees need to have access to a truly independent person or body at

times of their choice to report current incidents and concerns. Such a

person or body should be ensured free access to the detention centre at

all times and should not be subject to any bans or restrictions on their

access to any detainees.

Detainees state that

it is difficult to report abuses to outside independent authorities because

detainees are not allowed to have mobile phones and the telephone may

be monitored by ACM staff.

6.

The additional measures and safeguards which may be required to protect

the human rights and best interests of child asylum seekers and refugees

residing in the community

Detainees released

on Temporary Protection Visas are disadvantaged in the community. We have

referred above to the restrictions on access to vocational and further

education. The inability of TPV holders to access free English language

classes sets them up for failure in any attempt to support themselves.

Reasonable fluency in English is a prerequisite for obtaining employment

in virtually any area in Australia. It is also a necessary for ordinary

living skills such as the ability to negotiate with real estate agents

for accommodation, understand the terms of a lease, obtain a driver's

licence and for a multiplicity of everyday tasks. Without these skills

a person is doomed to stay on welfare or obtain only the most menial of

jobs.

The temporary nature

of the Temporary Protection Visa is also an area of major concern. The

TPV is issued for three years and an application must then be made for

its renewal for a further period of three years and so on. This gives

no security for holders who are subject to the possibility that at the

end of any visa period they will be found no longer to qualify for refugee

status, due to the government's current interpretation of world events.

For example the Immigration Minister has recently stated that it is now

safe to return asylum seekers to Afghanistan, despite advice from welfare

agencies to the contrary.

MWNNA submits that

holders of TPVs should become entitled to permanent visa status if it

appears at the first review that it is unsafe for them to be returned

to their former country.

MWNNA submits also

that holders of TPVs should be allowed to access free English classes

and other benefits available to permanent visa holders.

Summary

of MWNNA submissions:

1. The Australian

government should carefully observe all the provisions of the UN Convention

on the Rights of the Child

2. Children should

not be kept in detention for more than the minimum period necessary

to conduct health and identity checks, and in any event, for not more

than one or two weeks.

3. Children should

not be separated from their parents or primary caregiver either in or

out of detention.

4. An appropriate

guardian - not the Minister for Immigration or his appointee - should

be appointed for unaccompanied minors.

5. While MWNNA

submits that children should not be held in detention at all except

as mentioned above, if children continue to be detained as happens at

present, the following submissions are made:

a) Much more

care should be taken to prevent damage to the mental health of child

detainees. A psychologist specializing in paediatrics should be available

to assess child detainees and they should immediately be removed from

detention if it appears that they are suffering damage to their mental

health.

b) All children

in detention must be given a proper education to the same standard

as is enjoyed by children in the wider community.

c) All children

in detention should be give appropriate recreation facilities and

training.

d) Children in

detention should be able to receive appropriate religious instruction

if it is their parents' wish that they receive same.

e) More care

should be taken to ensure that staff at detention centres treat detainees

with courtesy and respect their human rights to the extent that staff

should not assault, shout at or verbally abuse detained children or

adults.

f) A fully independent

complaints mechanism should be established to allow detainees to register

complaints.

6. Children and

their parents released from detention on Temporary Protection visas

should have full access to normal migrant settlement services, especially

free English classes and employment services. They should also have

access to TAFE classes and further tertiary education on the same basis

as other members of the community.

7. The Temporary

Protection Visa system should be replaced by a system which gives holders

some certainty about their ability to remain in Australia eg replacement

by a permanent visa at the first review if it is still unsafe for the

holder to return to their home country.


1.

HREOC National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, www.humanrights.gov.au

November 2001

2. Carmen Lawrence, "A plea for a little compassion

from a bleeding heart," Sydney Morning Herald, 25.1.02

3. The Sun-Herald, 10.2.2002, pp 1, 10-11

4. Ibid.

5. Personal communication from the child's step-mother,

4 .3.02

6. Approximately 2 years in the cases of two families

known to MWNNA members.

7. Eg King & Vodicka (www.mja.com.au/175_12_171201/king/king.html),

M.M.Smith (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201/smith/smith.html),

Harris & Telfer (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201/harris/harris/html),

Sultan & O'Sullivan, "Psychological disturbances in asylum seekers

held in long term detention: a participant/observer account" (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201/sultan/sultan.html

Steele & Silove, (www.mja.com.au/public/issues/175_12_171201//html

8. MWNNA is aware of one young woman who gave birth in

detention and who stated that she had still not had a post-natal check

up nine months later.

9. Op cit n 7

10. Steele & Silove, op cit

11. Sultan & O'Sullivan (n 7)

12. Professor Alice Tay AM & Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM

media release on conditions at Woomera IDC 5.2.2002

13. See Dr Aamer Sultan's report on education at VIDC

annexure 'A'

14. Sr Helen Barnes, RC Church, visitor to detention

centre

15. Ibid

16. Ibid

17. Personal communication from Gaby Heuff, Co-ordinator

at the Refugee Claimants Support Centre in Brisbane, 17.2.2002

18. Personal communication from Camilla Cowley 18.2.2002

19. op cit

20. "Leadership minus compassion is tearing us apart,"

Sydney Morning Herald, 25.1.02

Last

Updated 9 January 2003.